


Among the Stars

by StardustCoyote



Category: Star Fox Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Childhood Trauma, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Outer Space, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-12
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-04-08 21:24:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4321275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StardustCoyote/pseuds/StardustCoyote
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So, this is a massive revision/restart of my first story ever, that was posted on another site. I wanted to write a sequel, but found that I needed to flesh out my original story a lot more to do so. In the process I've changed a lot of the plot in my outline.</p><p>That said, I have no betas or editors (if you want to volunteer let me know!) and I'd love to know what you think even if it's just telling me what to fix in my writing.</p><p>Thanks for reading!</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Origins

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is a massive revision/restart of my first story ever, that was posted on another site. I wanted to write a sequel, but found that I needed to flesh out my original story a lot more to do so. In the process I've changed a lot of the plot in my outline.
> 
> That said, I have no betas or editors (if you want to volunteer let me know!) and I'd love to know what you think even if it's just telling me what to fix in my writing.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits of a star gone wrong. — Sir Arthur Eddington

### Iliona - First Planet in the Ervi System - 24 Years BLW

The stars glittered far above Abandale, the largest village on the only inhabitable world in the Ervi system, hidden by the light of swinging lanterns and fires. The dangers of the forest beyond kept many from venturing past the safety of the torches placed around it's edges once night fell, but Amathla Ó Dulchaoinaill often went where others dared to tread. In the distance the pale light of the moon reflected off the once smooth stone of crumbling towers in the distance, artifacts of another age when things supposedly had been better. The lupine woman stepped carefully past the ancient trees that twisted and turned, in their reach for the sparse warmth that daytime brought, weaving her way along a path that had no markings nor real trail. 

Through the forest she padded as if a ghost, what of her white fur was not covered by the heavy cloak ruffled in the wind and took on an other-worldly quality in the pale moonlight. Worn leather met the snow on the ground in silence until the desired circle of trees was arrived at. The ground was considered sacred by her people, it's boundaries not broached even by those who doubted it was anything more than superstition. Only priests and a select few others were permitted here. No symbol of faith hung from the woman's neck, although none was needed to identify her to anyone else. The violet color of her eyes, along with her coloration and gender, were sufficient to identify Amathla's role. Some would call it a gift for its insight, others would call it a curse for its cost. Regardless of what turn of fortune it truly was, the Lady Ó Dulchaoinaill was a seeress.

At the moment, the roundness of her middle which often she kept one paw on, also made it terribly obvious that she was an expectant mother in addition. Her first child had been a blessing, was still a blessing she mentally corrected herself. Nothing was set in stone, had been the mantra of her mentor many years ago. These days however she wondered if it had been truth, or wishful thinking. She knelt in the middle of the clearing beside a large stone with carved symbols there before drawing a small knife from her belt and making a small cut on one hand. The metal stung far less than running the cut along the symbols, but she barely registered either sensation as she was intent on her task. She threw her head back, an eerie howl breaking the silence of the forest in an entreaty to any of the spirits that might listen to her. For a moment she opened her eyes and stared at the stars before her gaze focused on something beyond them.

Alone in the sacred circle, Amathla saw yet again the same images that had haunted her dreams for months, drawing a mournful cry from her lips as her worries found confirmation instead of reassurance. The path that lay before her unborn child twisted in ways she did not understand, but it was clear enough that it was a harsh one tinged with darkness and beings that terrified the seeress. 

After the images faded, she knelt there for several long moments piecing herself back together. Nothing was set in stone, she would have to find a way to change what was laid before her. Amathla stood and shook the snow off of her skirt and cloak before making her way back towards the village and her own warm little home, trying to calm herself as she went. She did not want her husband to know the nature of what she had seen. Amathla slipped into bed beside him, laying on her back one paw again resting on the growing child within her. No, she wouldn't be saying a word of what she knew to him. It would only lead him to treat their child either as if it was a fragile thing to put on a shelf, or a tainted one to keep at a distance. Neither option was acceptable, especially if she was to try and change what she had seen. 

The next morning Piarelyn Ó Dulchaoinaill awoke before his wife, glancing over her sleeping form with yellow eyes that stood in stark contrast to the dark charcoal gray of his fur. He wondered where she had been out so late the night before, although it didn't deeply concern him. Being married to a seeress meant putting up with a number of strange habits to begin with, ones that other men might find suspicious. He'd long since grown used to it in the few years they had been married. That and as the village elder's son, albeit the second not the first and heir to a position of leadership, he was assured in the knowledge none would dare touch his wife. The tall lupine quietly arose from their shared bed and stretched, was not a bad husband by anyone's account, he simply wasn't a great one

The man was largely unremarkable, other than being the second son of the village's leader. Neither stunning nor ugly, neither deeply in love with his wife nor begrudging of their arranged circumstances. He was strong enough to provide for them both and if anything stood out about him it was that he was intelligent. Had he been born first, he would have made an efficient, if cold leader. Instead Piarelyn's fate was to maintain what aging bits of technology Iliona still possessed. He dressed, shaking out his fur and donning several layers of clothing before stepping out into the snowy day and trudging towards the one building in the village that was made of stone not wood and actually had real locks on the doors.

A few other wolves who were up and starting to head out for their own days gave him a quick glance but paid him no real attention. His job was irrelevant and unimportant in their eyes. A task given to second and third sons to give them something to do was the general consensus. As the lupine stepped into the building he turned on the electric lights, which were run by an aging solar system that resided on the roof above most prying eyes. The principles on which all of it worked were beyond him in parts, and incompletely understood in others. Mostly because the knowledge had been long lost to his people before he had been born. He had however, figured out over the years how to repair more of it than his predecessors.

Piearelyn strongly suspected he could have understood such things, if he was allowed to ask the people who would have known. Noone on Illiona was of the belief that they were alone in the infinite stretches of space above them, periodically others from far off stars and distant lands would stumble across the tiny system. The last time it had happened Piarelyn's great-great-grandfather had been a cub and some of the families from their own village had left, seeking their fates elsewhere. It was however, Piarelyn and his family alone that knew this first hand, for they could still contact them with the aging technology. Except for the fact he couldn't, because tradition stated it as did the laws enforced by the elders. Particularly his father. 

Why it had become such a great secret it was possible, or they put up with struggling on their own instead of simply asking for help, neither he nor his father knew for certain. Oh there were tales and prophecies that the spirits would be angry with them, or that the others they reached had always and would always refuse their help but it was really no more than the repeated words of old wolves who had little better to do. Regardless, it was far too entrenched for even his father to change.  


### Corneria - Lylat System - 20 Years BLW

Accord Day was a grand affair, at least in the eyes of some. Mostly the Cornerians, one of the advantages of being on the winning side of things is finding it easier to view the past with rose colored glasses, or in this case through ticker tape parades. Hours of which would be broadcast on the news all day, each anchor or interviewee proclaiming how wonderful it was for the entire Lylat system to be at peace for the second year in a row after years of bloody inter-system war. Unified under one government, for the good of all it's people. Senators attended fancy dinners and Chancellor Voss would make a speech that really had nothing of substance worth repeating. James McCloud would find himself yet again in a flight jacket (because what else was he going to wear?), attending a military dinner.

The young man found it hilarious frankly, that the dinner would be held in his and others honor and yet he and most of the other pilots who had managed to survive the war weren't actually in the military any longer. Part of the treaties that had been signed or some such politics, required paring down the military force. Rumor had it his unit had been specifically listed as a group that would be disbanded under the table to get one of the treaties signed. It meant something of an early retirement for the vulpine to be flying under Corneria's official emblem. Which wasn't actually meaning an early retirement at all, it had taken all of a week for him to form a private for-hire team. Right now the "team" consisted of himself, and his longest friend Peppy Hare who had been in the same disbanded unit, and looking for a third.

James had thought life would be simpler without all the military paperwork and nonsense and he was both dismayed and elated to find that he was completely wrong. Dismayed that things weren't any simpler at all, if anything they'd become far more complicated. He could choose which missions he wanted and when he wanted to fly, except he was taking nearly every mission as his team had to establish a reputation above and beyond his personal one, and if he wanted to keep his ship and have any money left over afterwards he'd be away from home nearly as much as before. Elated, because the only reason that was a problem was that he had fallen head over heels for the most wonderful woman he could have ever dreamed up - Vixy Reinhard. Managing a relationship and his own mercenary team though was putting him at odds with himself, a feeling James didn't like in the least.

The orange-furred fox tapped at his wineglass with a claw absently, wishing that he'd been able to bring her. She'd been rather opposed to the idea, so instead he was here without a date. Peppy was sitting beside him, his own wife Vivian another seat over. Damnit. James was impatient, really this was all bread and circuses and the pilot knew it. It would have been fine with him though except all he really wanted to do was go over to Vixy's place and have dinner with her instead. If only he could be in two places at once that would solve almost everything wrong with his world. 

The older pilot beside him chuckled, knowing what was on his friend's mind. "Easy James, it'll be over soon enough. Supposedly it's going to be infinitely shorter than last year's because they're not letting any of us say anything."

There was a chuckle from the fox as he stopped tapping at the glass of liquor in front of him. "Probably for the best. Bunch of flyboys like us were never meant to be paraded around on political pedestals. I still can't believe they let Conrad Grey take that microphone after he got into the open bar. I'm pretty sure that those war stories were not the ones they wanted the public to hear." The chuckle faded into a more bitter one. Even drunk he didn't say a word about what had transpired before the entire prison on Macbeth had been liberated - prisoners of war like pilots who had managed to survive being shot down in atmosphere and hardened criminals alike.  
"There's a mistake you only make once." Peppy grimaced remembering last years Accord Day dinner and picked up his own glass, glancing sideways with a grin at his wife. The older man was just as eager to be out of the formal affair and home as well, he was simply far better at hiding his impatience.

James slumped down in his seat surprising a groan as some other General stepped up and glanced over at Peppy with a gleam in his eyes that made the older man worry. The fox slipped on his sunglasses and pulled out his cell phone, holding it under the table as he rapidly started texting someone.

"James, please James whatever you're planning don't. Please. It's only an few more hours." The gray hare's ears stood straight up as he whispered back.

"And we're leaving again tomorrow afternoon on the next job. That's a few more hours *I* don't get to have with Vixy. It's bad enough trying to balance the job and trying to see her without this kind of nonsense!" 

"I do understand that you know. We're kind of in the same boat, things will settle down soon, but it's not like there are a lot of other jobs out there for us. Keep our heads down and we'll sort it out. Put the phone down James, it's a bad idea, whatever it is it's a bad idea." Peppy glanced over at the glass in front of James and was wondering whether he should take the phone and the glass away or if that would just encourage the other man more, and he ought to go get James a few more drinks instead and hope he was too gone to start any plans. He sighed realizing neither would realistically work and quietly whispered. "Can I at least get an advanced heads up here? I would kind of like to make a quiet exit with the wife rather than get arrested tonight James."

"Calm down, I'm not quitting what we do. I don't think I could. It's absurd, when I'm on the ground I want to be in the air, when I'm in the air I want to be on the ground. I may have lost my mind but I haven't gotten stupid. You're not going to get arrested old man. It's nothing but a little bit of hacking into city infrastructure. Shhh, I'm concentrating." James rapidly typed on the fold out keyboard, something that was considered outdated but let him do actual work on his phone, a terminal window popping up on the screen as he navigated through logins and backdoors that he'd found a hundred times before. 

"I can't say I recall you being willing to hack things while in the middle of a hundred or more military officials and our employers for any other girl. You really that over the moon for her?"

"Absolutely. I need you to help me pick out a ring soon."

Peppy sputtered and stared at James. James McCloud, ace pilot, daredevil, hobbyist hacker into all things he didn't belong in. James, the man with a mental black book of girls numbers and addresses that could only be called little in comparison to a city wide phone directory was going to settle down?! 

"Your jaw is hanging open, dear." Vivian giggled softly at her husband, she'd had her own suspicions that was coming and was shocked that Peppy hadn't seen it. She reached over and with a paw gently tapped on her husbands chin. 

"Old man, why don't you go get up and get another drink. The bar is near the door anyways. Take Vivian too." Peppy groaned and got up with his wife and headed towards the bar, so that it didn't look like he was going for the door. He was grateful for the heads up when the building fire alarm went off, shortly followed by the sprinkler system. 

Officials and wives in fancy dresses streamed out of the building amid mostly yelps of surprise and a few cries of confusion as James shut his phone and shoved it in his pocket and calmly waked over and unlatched one of the windows as the room was on the first floor and opened it. Waiting in the lines trying to get out wasn't his style, as he landed amid the manicured hedges and flowers before he took off running for the nearest subway entrance.


	2. Dealmaker

To be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars. — Henry Van Dyke 

### Corneria City - Cornerian Military Air Force Base - 20 Years BLW

The letters on the office door glass declared the relatively spacious (for the Cornerian Military) room inside to belong to one Brigadier General Cornelius Pepper. It was the same as the doors for each of the other generals of equal rank, at least in appearance. The amount of traffic it received however from individuals who were not in military uniform however, was not. Across the hallway from another desk watching the coming and goings sat a large brown bear, who glanced up every so often seeing who was going down the hall. Major General Ralph Brun still was scratching his head over exactly how Pepper had managed to get his pet project - using mercenaries in place of the official units they'd been forced to disband - approved. All he knew was that the Senate had sponsored the bill, approved it, and tied doing it to the budget. It didn't mean that he liked it, even if he had to live with it. When he heard the unmistakable voice of James McCloud, back again from one mission and certain to be immediately given another he just shut the door and muttered his frustration into a mug of now lukewarm coffee. If there was one thing he liked less than mercenaries it was daredevil pilots, and the vulpine who was both was in his mind far more of a liability despite his achievements. Maybe one day that would bite Pepper in the tail, General Brun would like that.

Whatever the other general felt about the matter, it was on Pepper's desk the approval and dispensation of various missions as he saw fit to whichever team was on the approved list. StarFox was absolutely on the approved list, and really if anything Pepper was loving the fact that he could hire them back but not under official military colors. All the measure of obedience he'd ever gotten out of James McCloud, and a lot more deniability if anything went wrong. It was perfect, and was working well enough that his detractors were having to be a bit more quiet with their complaints. There was a knock on the door, more casual than any military officer or enlisted would have dared as the vulpine walked in dressed in his usual flight jacket, sunglasses and red scarf, followed closely by the more senior hare and another pilot that Pepper didn't know. 

"Afternoon General." James was grinning, and didn't bother taking off his sunglasses. "I'm assuming you got our report once we hit planet-side?"

Pepper gave a practiced smile and motioned for the three to sit in the chairs before his desk. "I did, another job well done. I imagine you are here for your check, as well as your next assignment. But first, who is this?" He looked over at the third pilot in the room, one he didn't know from any military service. 

"This, is the third member of StarFox, Pigma Dengar." James said, still grinning. "Two pilots flies a little light for some missions, even for my tastes it's too risky. "Pigma, this is Brigadier General Cornelius Pepper, we usually call him just General for short as he's the only one we actually work with anyways these days."

Hands were shaken before the new member sat down. He was quiet, even compared to Peppy he was quiet. It was Pepper who spoke up next. "A pleasure. If you can pass James' standards of piloting I won't bother with any of the formalities. I will need to run a background check though, despite the fact I'm sure James already did."

The vulpine nodded, he had his sources. Pigma's background was frankly- squeaky clean. It had nagged him a little at first, that there was absolutely nothing on a guy who was a pilot and wasn't in the military, but supposedly he'd been flying for the private corporations and everything James could dig into, had checked out. Eventually his misgivings had been put aside given that there weren't exactly a list of volunteers wanting to be on the team despite its reputation. Most mercenaries these days had signed up with Black Sky, an up and coming corporation that provided a shell of sorts for mercenary teams giving legitimacy and the promise of backup and a few other benefits in exchange for a cut of the profits. The military had been authority enough, James wasn't about to go signing up to take orders from a corporate pencil pusher who had never seen combat. Pigma thought that Black Sky took too much of a cut for what they offered. "Naturally, sir." He glanced over at the third pilot. "Probably at some point need to work on getting you some form of clearance but, I'm hoping Pepper has something on the list that doesn't require it."

Pepper paused, the sound of his stylus tapping on the tablet before him as he wrote out the authorization to transfer funds to the team's account stopping and there was a moment of silence. "Well, yes, as it is." He stood up and shut the door before he continued. Peppy was trying hard not to give him a quizzical look, but the one ear up one ear down was a dead giveaway. One the general had always found amusing. "However, while it doesn't require clearance, it does require discretion. It's not an official military mission. It's more of a….call it a favor for another branch of the government."

 

Peppy frowned, although Pigma finally spoke up "Thought the pay was guaranteed more or less on this gig, given its all military contracts."

 

The middle aged dog smiled, as if it was a silly question that didn't offend him. "Shrewd man I see you've hired James. The pay is still guaranteed, under all the usual terms. I can personally prose you that. It's just going to be a different color and insignia on the check, and a request that you keep it under your flight helmets so to speak."

 

"Same thing, different money bucket. Yeah that's not a problem General." James agreed more readily than Peppy would have liked, this was strange. He'd never seen things be handled this way in the military. The mercenary program was new but contracting out wasn't, but this was more than outside the norm. Then again things were strange in Lylat these days, times were changing and with it all of the old rules seemed to be in flux too. 

"Details just hit your secured inbox" Pepper stated, hitting a button on the tablet before him and swiping an item from one area to another. "My secretary will have the forms for Dengar before you leave. Do try to get the paperwork in relatively soon." He glanced at the still sunglass sporting fox, it was things like that that sometimes wound up being the one problem he had with StarFox. He was pretty certain the last hardcopies he'd gotten had at least four different coffee rings on them before they'd come back - late. 

The team nodded, and after a few more pleasantries exchanged, the three headed out. It didn't take Pigma long to fill out the forms, James already knew that the man pretty much had no family or relations and no interest in acquiring them, which made listing them a brief matter. Once they were clear of the main building Peppy looked over at his team lead. "Can I ask why you didn't question the strangeness of that?"

James sighed. "Peppy, does it matter? You know how the military is, we were both in it. It's probably just Pepper working around somebody whose giving him grief or doing some other officer in the Marines or the Army a favor. Given neither are authorized to hire mercenary teams directly."

### Corneria City - Downtown - Later that Day

Soft sounds of quiet dinner conversations and silverware clinking against plates filled the restaurant. The constant barrage of to him, terribly loud noise, didn't help Senator Chadwick calm down in the least. The blonde fennec in the black suit cursed his large ears and the hearing that accompanied them again as he waited for his dinner companion. He swirled the glass of wine in front of him before finishing it off and having the waiter bring another. He was halfway through the second glass when he finally seemed to settle down as his associate showed up, ten minutes late. "Cornelius." There was a nod given to the General.

"Todd. Evening. Sorry to keep you waiting, but even I can't keep a three star General from going over his meeting times." The senator nodded in understanding, the explanation sufficient for him as the canine sat down across from him. 

"So what news? I assume there's news?"

"Easy my good man, yes there's news, and I think it will please you but give a man a moment." Pepper motioned a waiter who was not too far off over and was shortly brought a tumbler of gin and tonic. He took a sip before he continued. "The job is hired out, to the best team on the list, and you know who that is. They're famous enough for being up front that there won't be any problem with security checkpoints or inspecting cargo."

"You sure they won't look into what's in the crates?"

"No mercenary worth their salt would. Bad for business, and risky to know things you shouldn't. Besides, to them it's just another military job from me with a different check. Don't worry about it, I would be shocked if the idea to look even crossed their minds. If it does, the first thing they'd do is coming running to me and I'll explain it away for you. What you're moving is hardly suspicious to casual lookers anyways."

Todd nervously brushed off dust from his jacket that wasn't there and straightened his already perfectly straight tie. "I suppose you're right. The shortage hasn't actually hit yet. For now, the cargo is worth far less to anyone who doesn't know whats about to happen."

"Exactly my friend, exactly. Get another glass of wine and put your mind at ease about it." Pepper sighed, Todd was always such a bundle of nervous wreck, he wasn't quite sure how the man had been elected in the first place.

"And you're sure the paperwo.."

"Don't question my competence, Chadwick." There was a low growl underlying the tone and the fennec's ears stood straight up in startlement before the man looked properly abashed.

"Sorry, sorry. Details keep me up at night, that's all. I meant nothing by it." The desert sand colored whiskers on his face were twitching nervously, although Pepper knew that wasn't the man's tell for lying. Actually that was when the nervous little man was still for a change, trying too hard. 

"I know they do. It's why I told you have another drink."

"And in return what do you need then since you've completed your end of our bargain?"

"At the moment, my friend, nothing. I'm sure at some point I'll need a favor, nothing unpleasant or extravagant though." There was a reassuring smile from the General, as Senator Chadwick finished his second glass of wine and ordered a third. Pepper heeled up his glass and lightly clinked it to the other man's. "Too good partnerships and jobs well done."

### Corneria City - Apartment of Vixy Reinhard - 19.5 Years BLW

"James?" The voice that drifted in the still dark bedroom was tentative and mumbled, as it's speaker had just woken up hearing the door of the apartment open with someone who knew the code. Vixy felt the weight of someone else sit down on the edge of the bed and opened one green eye to see her fiancé lean down and kiss her cheek.

"Honey I'm home?" There was a grin on the pilots face that was a mixture of sheepish and impish all at the same moment and Vixy grabbed the spare pillow and thwapped him once with it which he easily batted away with a paw. She glanced over at the alarm clock and blinked, realizing she was asleep on top of the comforter still wearing the sleek black dress she'd meant to welcome him home in. 

"At four in the morning. WIth no phone call. James, what the hell?" The hurt in her voice was plain to hear. The vixen rarely yelled, although her temper was terrifying when someone did finally burn through her rather long fuse, but James knew he was in rather deep trouble over this one.

He sighed, and scratched self consciously behind an ear. "Radio silence babe, by the time that was safe to call you it was already 2 30 am. I did text you but I'm betting you'd fallen asleep by then." She was about to berate him for not calling when the fact he'd used the word safe to call her registered and she bolted up right.

“Safe? James, what happened?" She had already flicked on the light on the nightstand and was looking him over worriedly, and reached out one hand to the singe marks on the arm of his flight jacket. "Powers above James, are those blaster marks? Are you alright?!" 

"I'm, fine so is everyone else on the team." He put one hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "They missed, really, got the wall behind me and I'm pretty sure it was luck on their part. Couldn't hit the broad side of a barn." It wasn't completely true, they'd been able to aim much better than that but still, they'd missed and they hadn't been that good. He caught the look she was giving him, torn between worry and confusion as the mission shouldn't have been that dangerous at least not the one he'd described to her. It'd been truth then too, it shouldn't have gone down that way. The vulpine team lead was still trying to sort out exactly how the situation had arrived at gunfire between himself and another mercenary team. "No, it shouldn't have been a dangerous trip. Yes, something went very wrong. I'm still not sure what though. It should have been a simple escort, we were practically formality just like I told you. I don't even know why anyone was interested in that transport."

Vixy frowned, and looked at him as she tugged off his jacket, inspecting the shirt beneath and relieved to find that it didn't bear similar marks or any other sign of a scuffle. "Are you sure who gave you the job was upfront about what you were escorting? I don't see how scientific equipment would be that valuable on the black market either. It's not like it's exactly easy to pawn off or use.."

"Job come from Pepper babe." James let her take the jacket and then put an arm around her as she curled up against him. He glanced down at his fiancee, the black dress contrasted dramatically with the red fur that covered most of her but matched the darker markings she sported on her arms and legs, as well as her ears. A series of fused pieces of green iridescent glass strung together hung from her neck, offsetting the white fur there as well as the rest of her coloring beautifully. Glad to see her didn't begin to cover it. 

"Another one of his unofficial ones though?" There was suspicion in her voice. Vixy wasn't liking the amount of "off the books" jobs James was doing for Pepper. He nodded. 

"Yeah, but, babe it's just a different pay bucket. I've explained this. It's weird but, I'll try to find out."

She sighed, frowning but nuzzled against his neck anyways. "I'm just glad you really are okay, even if you are late. James….you would turn down a job if you thought something was off, right? Even if it's Pepper asking?"

"C'mon, you know the answer to that."

"I do, but I need to hear it from you." Green eyes gazed up at him again, worry and love both filling their depths. 

"Absolutely I would turn it down. I have you to come home to." James gently lifted her chin with a hand and kissed her, gently removing her earrings and necklace and putting them on the nightstand. 

The two foxes spent the scant few hours before dawn doing anything but sleeping.

### Corneria City - Apartment of Pigma Dengar - 19.5 Years BLW

The slightly round figure knocked the alarm to snooze again before remembering that the next job was slated in a couple of hours. Pigma's feet hit the floor and went scurrying about his apartment grabbing his things together. The last team mission hadn't gone so well, and he really disliked having to book things so tightly together. He did miss sleeping in half the day on days off. 

But there was one thing in Dengar's world that was more important than being comfortable and lazy when he could, and that was the money it took to acquire being comfortable and lazy. So up it was despite getting in late, and that the other two members of his team were bound to be home with their respective women and snoozing or plotting out absurd things like movies and picnics. Not that either of his other team members knew that he was working additionally outside of the StarFox name. What business was it of theirs though, he wasn't using the Team Name or it's resources while he did so. 

Some of the jobs were oddly easy - as if various checkpoints and security systems had been turned off or pre-programmed to ignore activity they otherwise should have picked up and noticed. Others were simply strange, things that could have been sent by any normal delivery ship were suddenly showing up as mercenary jobs, not that anyone could precisely "recall" what the normal items were when asked. Seemingly the sender had ensured their silence one way or another. There were patterns forming that a more attentive mercenary or smuggler might have noticed. Pigma however, was much more focused on more immediate goals and ensuring that his side work stayed quietly to the side. At this rate he'd be retired before he hit forty. Which wasn't nearly soon enough but he was sure he'd manage better. He just needed to find out who was paying for the really dirty jobs.


	3. Dreams and Nightmares

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." - Leonardo DaVinci 

### Outside Corneria City - Lylat University Research Lab - 18 Years BLW

LEDs and various displays blinked around the lab, each indicating the status or results of some measurement upon it's assigned experiment. The soft hum of fans could be heard, as workers in gloves and covered boots and masks entered and exited the sterile room. At 5pm, they each drifted out again as they wrapped up their work for the door, and headed out into the courtyard to catch the shuttle back to the city. Save for two. 

The lead biologist was working late, hunched over a microscope observing the effects of the latest nano-bot design upon living tissue. Petri dish samples, of course. It was designed to repair cellular damage, or destroy cells too damaged to repair. The implications were fantastic. The results so far were disasterous. Avery Andross scowled in disappointment as he shoved his chair back and stretched his back. "No good, no good at all" He muttered to himself scribbling down more quantified observations of the failures in experiment 37b.

Upstairs, unknown to the primate, the lead AI expert who he had called into consult was currently copying files of all his future experiments. Locked beneath four layers of encryption, what should have been completely secure was anything but. Then again, Beltino Toad had designed the encryption systems they were using, that he could also get past them would in hindsight be far from surprising. Some of the requests Andross had made of him, how he wanted various pieces of software for his nanobots written, made the amphibian quite uneasy. It might be terribly useful, but some of it had some terrifying potential if used for the wrong purposes. Beltino wasn't so sure he wanted to open that particular Pandora's Box without knowing why he was doing so. 

Files in hand, and a second copy stashed in the hidden compartment in the bottom of his insulated travel coffee mug, he headed down towards the lab floor and waited at the door for Andross to exit the airlocks. "We need to talk."

A warm smile was given in return, disarming in how friendly it was. "I had thought you would have left for the day by now. What do you need Beltino? I had tried to give you much better specifications this time, but we can work on them again if there are still some questions." Gray was just beginning to creep into the primate's hair and beard, as he approached fourty. It gave him a look somewhere between distinguished researcher, and somewhat father-like. Most of his staff found him rather agreeable , although Beltino had the feeling it was best to keep his distance from the other man. 

"No, the specifications are fine at least in terms of clarity. I have some reservations about them though. Giving artificial intelligence the ability to alter it's own programming is....dangerous to say the least. It would take me some time to put the proper safeguards in place, but to be fully honest with you, I don't see any reason that your current plans need such a capability. Unless, you have other plans I'm unaware of?" 

Instead of an angry scowl or a denial that such plans existed, Andross kept the same warm smile on his face. "Ah. I should have imagined you would start asking those questions. It's easier explained from my side of the fence, so to speak. Biology is not all so neat and tidy as the textbooks would like you to believe. I realize it's not your field, so I'll expound a bit. The reason I wanted the ability to adapt was that once we have our preliminary designs right, there's a list of other applications dealing with rapidly changing and varied problems I'd like to look at. Think viruses for example where the mutations are quite wide for the same disease in some cases. Imagine the ability to wipe out something like, the common cold, in an entire population."

"I see. That still doesn't explain why you might want it to be able to rewrite its behaviors. That's pretty well beyond the scope of even that. Nevermind that we're at least ten years away from this being in real production if everything goes well for the first goals." Beltino frowned a little as he spoke. The two scientists never argued, this was about as heated as their discussions got, but he was more than willing to change that fact.

"Behavior yes, but not the core directives. Those shouldn't be alterable other than by us. As long as it's behaving in accordance with the goals we give it, it shouldn't be all that problematic should it?"

"Assuming the goals we give it are always going to be good ones. I'm not so sure I necessarily think.."

Andross waved a hand and interrupted him. "Then make it alterable only by yourself and I, if it makes you feel any better about it. At least for now, and we can delegate that to only people in the future who you approve of. It would be a shame to hold this back when it's so needed." Beltino folded his arms over his lab coat, as if mulling it over as the primate continued. "Look, go home, think it over, I can give you more examples in the morning if you wish of instances where this would be remarkably useful. I think you'll come around to the idea that the benefits of this vastly outweigh the risks. We're talking changing the lives of everyone in the entire Lylat system for the better Beltino. Think about that for a minute. No, don't answer me right now, go home and think about it."

### Corneria City - StarFox Team Hangar - 18 Years BLW

"James, are you sure?" Disbelief tinged the voice of the hare as his team leader informed him they were taking a break from flying maybe for good.

"I have to, Peppy. I have a family. Vixy didn't like how often I was gone anyways, and now there's going to be a kid any day now. What the hell do I know about being a dad? Absolutely nothing! I definitely wouldn't learn it either if I'm never there!" Anxiousness at the decision left James pacing the floor of the hangar they were in. It was everything to fly, and here he was giving it up for something that was more important. The vulpine didn't question his priorities, but he did question whether it would work out. He didn't know anything but flying. He balled his fists and was geared up for the next round of arguments when Peppy relented.

"Which is a good reason if I ever heard one. I just never thought I'd see it. I do understand James, you know I have my own family. I just never thought I'd see the day where you thought the risks were heavier than I did." 

"Oh now this is bullshit." Pigma interjected. "You're both out of your heads." James started to open his mouth and Pigma didn't give him the moment to interrupt. "Don't even start with me. You call me up when you've come to your senses. If you haven't noticed, this leaves me in a hell of a position."

James sighed. "It really doesn't. I'll give you a recommendation to any team you want. You know that will get you a spot just about anywhere piloting."

"You better." Pigma folded his arms, still unhappy. Mostly because he knew a more strict team would eat into his side jobs, and StarFox frankly earned more than a lot of the other teams.

"That said James, lets not sell everything quite yet. Jobs aren't all that easy to come by for pilots who don't fly. Give it a couple weeks and make sure that it pans out, then we sell the ships and split everything out that was team owned?" Peppy had his doubts about this, but mostly because he knew other pilots who had tried the same. Few of them managed to keep their feet on the ground, and none of them were James McCloud.

### Corneria City - Home of Vixy and James McCloud - 18 Years BLW - Several weeks later

"He's perfect. He's got your eyes." James leaned over the crib, his son's tiny hand gripping onto a finger while his other arm wrapped around his wife. The redder furred vixen swatted him lightly and laughed as she hugged him back.

“And your fur coloring. Quite the handsome little fellow. We’ll see whether you still say that when it’s your turn to feed him at 4 in the morning. You might think he’s a little less than perfect then.” Vixy teased. 

James gave her a sideways look. “It’s not like I won’t be up anyways given I’m on second shift till further notice” He loathed the only job he’d managed to find. Even then he’d had to practically beg for it, which had grated on the todd’s pride more than a little. Working at the space docks was at least steady work, but it was mind numbing. 

His wife frowned, mostly because she knew he was unhappy with it, but there was little she could do about it. Her job as a nurse in the city hospital didn’t give her any connections or sway to try and help him get something better. “James.” She sighed. “When I go back to work we’re going to have to figure out who can watch him when we both have the same shift.”

“I don’t know Vix, there’s not exactly room in the budget to pay anyone for it. Even when we get the ships sold most of that will go to the debt on them.” It worried him, although he didn’t say more as he continued to play with his son who was happily unaware of his parent’s troubles.

“My mother does keep asking to move in with us…” 

“Vix….” James sighed. He really didn’t want his mother in law moving in. Then he really would go off the deep end, as if staring up at the sky every night watching others come and go as they flew it wasn’t bad enough. He was trying to convince himself that it wasn’t something he needed, something that wasn’t slowly driving him in circles to be grounded all the time. “C’mon. You really wouldn’t want her to be here all the time would you? I know you two get along and all but, indefinitely?”

Vixy leaned against the dresser in the room and watched her mate. “No, I wouldn’t. I’d suggest moving to somewhere cheaper, but then that just means a longer rail ride for both of us. And worse schools when he gets older.”

“The commute I’d take, the schools I won’t.” The tone implied there was no argument on the latter. James furrowed his eyebrow in frustration, he’d been trying to make the numbers work for weeks. It always came up the same, or close enough it didn’t make a difference. He felt his wife leaning against him and her muzzle against his cheek. “We’ll make it work, somehow.”

The fox cub beneath them giggled and reached up for his mother. She lifted the small boy they’d named Thaddeus, although most of his relatives called him “Todd”, which James had turned into simply “Fox” much to her chagrin and his father’s amusement. She hated him being gone, but she also hated the way he dragged in from his shifts. She’d wanted him to stop being so reckless and worry about the future a little more, but not like this. “Maybe you should go back to doing what you’re best at. I know I said I wanted you to be more careful but..I didn’t ask you to quit James.”

“I know you didn’t. I know you hate when I’m gone for so long sometimes too. I just…I can’t seem to make this work Vixy. And I should be able to.”

“And I hate seeing you this frustrated. Life’s not perfect, I’ll deal. Just, promise me you’ll be more careful. I am not doing the single mom thing.” She nuzzled against his cheek again. “I was thinking maybe one day he’d have a little brother or sister, maybe a couple of them. You know, a few to drive you crazy and make your fur go gray. I think you’d look good in gray, personally.”

“I promise. I’ll call Peppy in the morning. Thank you. I know it’s not what you want. It’s not what I want either. Well, not entirely.” James laughed and turned to kiss his wife, only to flinch when his son grabbed at the fur on his ear before he grinned again. “Yow! Hey grabby paws, I was having a moment with your mom here buddy. One day you’re going to understand the whole “girl” thing.”

Vixy just rolled her eyes.

### Iliona, Ervi System - Village of Abandale - 17 Years BLW

Even the children of the village noticed that the past several months had been unusual. The weather had turned colder earlier than anyone could remember and crops were failing, although most of the younger members of the village didn't understand fully what that meant for the coming months. Amathla had been asked many times whether things were going to get better. For now, she had said she did not know the spirits would not speak to her. In truth, they had but the answer they gave her made no sense to her. Light followed by cold and darkness beyond anything she'd ever known. As ill as it boded, the seeress knew better than to give answers before she herself understood them. Sometimes omens were far from what they appeared on the surface. It was only a few more days until the Hunter's Moon and the annual gathering of the villages, which meant only a few more days until there would be at least two others gifted with sight who might could assist her in deciphering what sparse answers she had been given.

Until that time though, Amathla pretended on as if she knew no better and went about her other mundane duties. The white furred wolf took another item of clothing off of the drying line, and paused putting a hand to her large middle as a pain went through her for a moment and then was gone again. Her second child was not due still for another moon, if not a little more. "Ember, come get this basket for me." Her voice carried over the yard to the child on the other end of it, a gray furred cub with white markings and violet eyes. Ember Ó Dulchaoinaill looked up from the carved wooden toys he'd been playing with and scowled, ears going out flat to the sides of his head, although he stood up and trudged over across the yard and picked up the basket full of clothing. "You can go back to playing once it's inside Ember." The wind picked up as the wolfess watched her rather temperamental son go inside and she glanced towards the sky, her brows furrowing. 

The next few days seemed an eternity, Amaltha torn between whether she wanted to know what her visions meant, and the pressing need to understand and keep her village safe By the time the appointed day arrived, anyone could tell she was on edge. She and Piarelyn jad even wound up yelling at each other in perhaps the second argument they'd ever had. Now she walked beside him in uneasy and anxious silence. The moon of Ervi hung low in the sky, lighting easily the paths between the torches and homes. Her husband pushed open the door to the his father's cabin, the warmth of the fire inside doing nothing to change the solemn look on her face. Inside, the old gray wolf who was her father in law and their leader waited, four other elders who were all about his own age with varying degrees of scars and grizzled fur sat in chairs nearby him. A wan smile crossed her face when she saw the only two females in the room besides her self. One could easily imagine the three were sisters, identical coloring on each of them, despite the fact they shared no ancestry as far back as anyone could remember and their ages spanned a quarter century difference between them.. 

Her father in law's voice seemed too loud in the quiet cabin when he spoke. "Amaltha, Piarelyn." He motioned them in and his son to one of the empty seats, as the other two female wolves got up and headed to a separate room. Amaltha tilted her head, slight confusion clear on her expression, and glanced back at the village leader. "I know it is not traditional to have the seeresses confer on the upcoming year until dawn, but given what Elder Tassarion and Elder Friast tell me, go on."

"Yes Elder Dulchaoinaill" Amaltha bowed her head once and stepped into the other room, which obviously normally served as a dining room although it had been hastily cleared out. Cushions in various colors of cream and brown had placed upon the floor for them. The younger of her two peers embraced her gently, but without warning. Amaltha blinked and reached a hand up to stroke the back of the young girl's head. "Halueve? What.."

Ingrid shook her head. "You already know, I think. She and I...get nothing but the same vision. I cannot imagine you don't see the same."

"I do, but I do not understand it."

Ingrid let a harsh "ha" fall from her lips as she shook her head again. "Nor did I. But Haleuve and I together made....some sense of it. I think....the three of us should try together."

Haleuve let out a small frightened whimper, which took Amaltha aback. She'd never seen the other wolf afraid of anything they'd found in visions. "I think, that's the only option we had anyways. It'll be alright Haleuve..."

The smell of ritual incense and faint chanting of the seresses drifted into the main room. The five elders shared their news, which crops had failed, that the northern rivers had iced over early this year, the herds of yakil that the southern tribes hunted were dwindling. Each dismayed to find that hard times seemed to be in front of all of them. Plans were proposed, argued about, and others raised in their place. Merge the tribes into two not five, send scouts to the far south valley to see if the yakil had migrated there, send scouts east to the Great River. Bickering about which plan was best had ensued and they were no closer to having any sort of agreement than when they had started. Consensus never would be reached as the debate was interrupted by the bang of the door to the other room swinging open. All of the heads and ears in the room instantly swerved to look at Ingrid who stood in the doorframe, leaning on it heavily. 

"This world is dying."

Shocked silence fell upon the room before Ingrid spoke again. "The darkness and cold is what happens when the fire of our sun goes out."


	4. Endings and Beginnings

"Rage, rage against the dying of the light." - Dylan Thomas 

### Iliona, Ervi System - Village of Abandale - 17 Years BLW

"The darkness and cold is what happens when the fire of our sun goes out." 

The weight of Ingrid’s words echoed across the room which had fallen completely silent. Haleuve had her face buried in Amaltha's robe, trembling while the other seeress held her silently, having no words of comfort to offer. The elders stared, several moments passing as the meaning of what had been said registered. The shock on their faces gave way to a range of horror or disbelief. Ingrid's own elder finally stood up and looked at the white wolfess in the doorway, eyes hard as he met her gaze.

"You are mistaken."

The older wolfess bristled, the fur on her neck rising up as she growled, a low rumble from her throat that underlaid each of her words. Brilliant violet eyes refused to look away from the other's cold gaze. "You question the truthfulness of an entire trio of those gifted with second sight? You're a larger fool than I thought if you think we would tell you this without certainty, Thad Friast. It's a shame you don't have half the wisdom of your father, even he would have known that insisting on ruling a dead tribe means nothing." 

The two lupines gazes met a moment more before it was the elder, nor the seeress who looked away. "Even if you are right, what good does it do us? There's nothing we can do to stop such a thing.” The room fell quiet and a hopeful look was given towards the trio of women, as Ingrid sighed and held up her empty hands eliciting a strangled sob from Haleuve. 

“No, we can’t stop our home from dying, but that doesn’t mean we have no options." The voice of Elder Dulchaoinaill came from where he was sitting still, hands clasped together in his lap while he stared at them as if there was an easier answer to be found by their contemplation. The room's calm was broken by questions of his sanity by the other men. "Hear me out. We leave. Yes, I know we ourselves have no way of doing so. But others do, our legends tell us as much."

"Children's bedtime stories!" Spat the still standing Thad.

The sitting elder looked up at him, his voice still perfectly calm and level despite the obvious anger in his expression. "No, not really. It's not quite the same as the stories, but it's close enough to truth that the differences are irrelevant."

"So we sit on our tails and wait for some race of beings we've not seen in decades to magically save us?! That's as absurd as the idea of leaving itself is."

"No, Thad, we ask. You know as well as I do that when the towers fell, and the old Tribe divided into clans, each of the four took upon itself a task to preserve something of the past knowledge, to make sure that it did not die, nor be forgotten. I suppose your father did not pass down the fact that we all know what the others guard, even though we originally agreed not to. Your clan guards how they once managed to light the night skies all year, that could poison the entire world if we let it. Tassarion keeps the knowledge that was used attempt to create more seers, and wipe out entire villages at a time, despite the good it could have brought. Jin guards how the old Tribe raise food in quantities that noone ever went hungry, at the expense of killing the land itself. And Dulchaoinaill , ...Dulchaoinaill guards how to contact the ones who brought it all to us to begin with, how to talk with another across distances neither you, nor I, completely understand. "

"If that's true, why then would we trust these people that brought about our near destruction to begin with! Where have they been since?"

“What other choice do we have, Thad? Sit here and die. I for one, find it unacceptable, but you are certainly welcome to stay here and freeze to death of your own accord with whatever of your clan feels the same way. As for where they have been, their own worlds Thad, with their own suns, their own stars. "

### liona, Ervi System - Village of Abandale - 17 Years BLW

Months of attempting to reach other worlds had not worked as easily as the tribes of Iiona had hoped for.Some of the transmission frequencies they had been given got no response, or simply static brought back. Weeks were lost as ice storms rolled through the valley, blocking out the night sky as well as their ability to reach those distantly within in. Not all of the few they did reach were willing to help, or in one case even speak to them once they had identified themselves through the translator. 

But the plan had worked. There was one system that was willing to take them in. Several worlds banded together in a single federation, its seat a world called Corneria. It would take a month for them to arrive with ships that could supposedly all take them to a new home.Piarelyn was for the first time in his life, out from under his father's shadow and lauded as the man who had helped save them all. No longer the pointlessly occupied son of the elder, he was proud of the role he'd played. It seemed though his wife wasn't as thrilled with such prestige, or the news that they would be safe. 

The black furred wolf stepped through the door to their home, glancing down at his son who was packing everything he deeply valued into a small box. There was a soft chuckle as he saw that it contained mostly toys. "Ember, your grandfather has asked you to go along to his table for dinner tonight."

The small boy let out an equally small whine and turned around looking up at the grown wolf."But Da'..."

"I know, you want dinner with me and your mom. It's just one night Ember, go along." Piarelyn shook his head watching the cub pull on his jacket and trudge outside before he stepped into the bedroom he shared with his mate. The white furred wolf that was his wife was sitting on the edge of their bed, staring at the thin white candle she had lit on a plate. Dark circles were under her eyes, one hand on her middle that held their second child. Piarelyn knew that look on his wife's face and it disturbed him to see such fear on his normally level-headed mate.

Amaltha looked up before he spoke, the fur on her face matted with tears. He canted his head slightly to the left and sat down beside her putting an arm around her. He may not have been deeply in love with his arranged wife, but he was far from uncaring. "What has you so worked up? What our new home will be like?"

For a moment the seeress was silent, trying to find the right words. Normally she didn't share her doubts, her fears with her husband. She hadn't with their first child, although as of yet she'd seen nothing about the boy that enlightened her to what those visions had exactly foretold. Her gazed fixed at a spot on the floor when she managed to speak. "I don't, I don't think it will be our home. Yours. Embers. Our daughter's. Not mine."

"That's absurd, it will be all of our home. All of the tribes and villages, why would it not be yours?"

"I don't..I don't think I live to see it. I keep dreaming that..I don't."

He put his hands on his wife's shoulders and pulled her close to him. "Amaltha, dreams, not visions. I know both can have meaning, but you know my sister had the same dreams every time she bore a child. So have lots of women in the village and they mean nothing foretold. Even you've told me before that you would doubt these things if you yourself saw them."

Amaltha leaned against him, although she was still looking at the spot on the floor, not able to really let the thought go. Piarelyn was right, except she had seen more than just that. These weren't dreams, they were visions, and any good seeress knew the difference between them. No, somehow she was not going to see this new world, a place with buildings of metal and glass with all manner of creatures she'd never seen before. They walked in roads that looked like they were made of a single piece of stone, boarded great things of more metal that some ran on bridges at speeds faster than any warrior could hope to run, flew boxes of metal in the sky. A world she saw her son and husband, and their future daughter in. A daughter with white fur and violet eyes, that would bear the same gift and curse of her mother, more strongly in both what it brought and took.

She finally looked back around at her mate, hoping that he was right while knowing it wasn't true. Hoping that he would raise their children well enough on his own. Silently praying that the ancestors and deities would watch over her children, follow and watch out for them among the stars.

Three weeks later, Piartelyn found himself at a funeral pyre for his mate, the last of their kind that would lay with their ancestors. The Elder stood beside him, holding his son, as the black wolf was holding his daughter underneath the heavy cloak he was wearing. A small, frail cub that had nearly left with her mother, but instead had stayed behind as if she was a tiny ghost. White furred and violet eyed, much to her father's dismay.


	5. Flight

"If offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat. Just get on.” — Christa McAuliffe, Teacher and Challenger Astronaut

### Corneria City - Slums - 13 Years BLW

Large raindrops fell from the darkened sky onto the pavement below, forming pools in the cracked and uneven sidewalk. It’s pattering was only interrupted by the noise of the few cars that came this way, and the occasional siren a few blocks over. Graffiti littered most of the walls and a good number of signs and posters. Maps called the neighborhood Taubert. Anyone who was familiar with it called it the Den, nicknamed for the fact it was both full of unsavory activities and populated by those who most of Corneria associated with it. Weasels and rats made up the majority of the population here, although there was a smattering of tigers, other large cats and reptiles who also called the area home. Four years ago the Cornerian goverment set aside this particular street in the low income housing for the influx of refugees from Iliona that would reside on the capitol world, adding a number of wolves to the mix. 

Two violet eyes watched the rain from inside one of the small apartments on the street, making a silent snarl at the poor weather. A few lamps on worn tables lit the inside of the apartment, spread throughout the sparsely furnished two bedroomdwelling. Above the desk the boy sat at were a couple of photos of the latest Arwing prototypes torn from some magazine, taped to the wall. A few toy ships lined the window, one with a somewhat wobbly StarFox logo drawn on it.

“Not supposs’ to play with them.” The voice behind him made Ember jump slightly, even though he knew who it was, before he turned and looked at his younger sister. He hadn’t said a word, yet she still knew he’d been thinking of the group of other boys he’d started hanging out with. Some of them were lupine like he was, although none from his own village. Others were from the surrounding streets, a motley assortment of which he was one of the youngest. 

“Clearly I’m not, I’m in here and don’t do that.” He muttered and went back to trying to fill out the worksheets before him on the table, although most of the sheet was filled with doodles of planes and spaceships in between the questions. He’d gotten used to the notion that when his sister spoke, half the time it was childish babble and half the time it was downright creepy. That was just Lyra. “C’mere, be quiet, da’s sleeping. ” He lifted up the smaller now pouting wolf and sat her in the chair next to him, turning on the screen embedded in the wall and setting it to cartoons with the volume down. 

A couple hours later he could hear his father stumbling out of the other room. The familiar sounds of him making coffee and a clean mug came from the kitchen, the smell of cigarette smoke drifting in not long after. His father’s fur was more disheveled than usual, dark circles under his eyes a clear sign that he’d gotten in late and probably drunk. Ember pretended not to notice, head down looking at the paper in front of him. He waited a while before getting up to go into the kitchen himself and see what there might be for breakfast.

“Ember”. The low warning growl was better than he usually got, and he freeze in his tracks as his ears rotated towards the wolf behind him. Ember could feel the yellow eyes staring at him, watching every motion he made, and he tried hard to stay perfectly still. His thoughts raced through everything he’d done today or yesterday, trying to figure out what he had screwed up so he could apologize and try to avoid his father’s ire. The lupine came up empty handed for things he could apologize for readily, not that really the apology would have helped. Piarelyn Dulchaoinaill didn’t really resemble the father he had known on Iliona, this man was older, thinner, and far angrier than the one he remembered. Even the names on the ID badge they had been given were different, changed to be easier to pronounce. Ember didn’t really like Pierce O’Donnell, and got the distinct feeling Pierce wasn’t very fond of either of his children.

The older wolf glanced over at the two children, wishing they didn’t remind him so much of his wife and the home he couldn’t go back to. Sometimes he got the notion to try and do better for them, but work for anyone who wasn’t a native of the system was even harder to get than it was for those who called Venom their homeworld. 

His father let out a long, irritated sigh, before pulling out a wallet that was more duct tape than wallet at this point and offered out a ten credit note. “Go down to Rick’s and get me a pack of smokes, and something for you and your sister to eat.” l watched his son with a measure of distrust as he stepped over and took the note. The moment the boy had it in his hand, he found his collar grabbed by the older wolf and drug so that his muzzle was only an inch away from his father’s. Wide purple eyes looked back into bloodshot yellow ones, fear written all over the boy’s face. A wiry thin arm, covered with scars, held the young wolf in place with a strength that was terrifying to the boy. “I expect you to hurry, and I expect you to come straight back. Now get gone.” Ember nearly tripped as Pierce let go of his collar and he hurried to go, the small act of clumsiness bringing more of a scowl to the older O’Donnell’s face.

The door of the small apartment was hard to keep from slamming, but Ember tried anyways. Down the stairs with the rusted and wobbly railing, into the lobby with the broken boarded up windows and out onto the street and the rain. The street itself was less quiet now, as many other people were either hurried on errands or a few groups just standing around watching and up to nothing anyone wanted to know about. 

The lanky young wolf hurried down the street to a small store on the corner, whose long-unlit sign declared it to be Rick’s, which was also the name of the raccoon who was behind the counter. He quickly grabbed a few things, cheap food that he know he could make and would go farther given the small amount of money he had. A box of dry pasta, some sauce, a loaf of bread, peanut butter, and an apple which was Lyra’s favorite that he had enough coins to pay for himself. It was all dumped on the counter unceremoniously and the ten note offered out. “Need a pack for da too.”

Rick nodded, it might have been against the law to sell them to the man’s son instead of him, but he really didn’t want trouble with the temperamental man Pierce was known to be. That and he also knew it would be Ember who caught the brunt of it if he refused anyways, and while Rick may not have been a particularly generous man he wasn’t a cruel one. “Sure thing kid.” He tossed the cigarettes in on top of the rest in the bag. “Say hi to your sister for me.”

“Yeah. Sure. Thanks.” Ember wasn’t really fond of talking to people, it wasn’t particularly easy or frankly worth his while. He took the bag and hurried back, taking the steps three at a time despite the lack of railing. A snarl came from Pierce, who muttered about how slow the pup was but wasn’t followed by an actual tirade. Ember handed his father the cigarettes and set the rest down in the kitchen, grabbing the apple from the bag and headed towards the room he and his sister shared.

He found the pixie-framed girl still sitting in one of the chairs with a crayon and a sheet of paper and completely absorbed in her drawing. He smiled as he crouched down, “Hey powder-puff, I got you somethin.” Purple eyes and a black nose that were the only coloring on the female wolf, all of her fur as white as snow, looked back at him wrinkled up in distaste of the nickname. Seven years younger than her brother, she looked like the spitting image of the mother she’d never known. A fact that drove Pierce up the wall, but spared her from the worst of his temper, usually redirected back onto her brother.

“Not powder-puff.” She folded her arms and pouted at him.

“Yeah yeah. You keep saying that and it still doesn’t mean you look less like one.” He teased his sister a bit, mostly because he thought it was hilarious when she tried to scowl and just looked ridiculous instead. “But I still got you somethin.” He held out the apple for her, and she instantly grabbed in with a grin and was already chowing down on it before she mumbled a thank you around it. Ember smiled and ruffled the his sister’s short white hair which she immediately tried to swat his hand away and smooth back.

She pointed at the paper and offered it up to him, on it was a crude drawing of a plane, with a gray stick figure with ears and purple eyes waving from the cockpit. Ember smiled and took it, carefully folding it and putting it in his pack pocket. He whispered to her so the other room coupldn’t hear. “Got that right powder-puff. One day you and I are gonna fly right outta this place.”

“EMBER!” The angry yell came from the living room and he cringed, before darting back. “What the hell? Put the damn groceries away too boy! I know half-ass should have been your middle name but try for a change not to live up to the notion!” Pierce was already up and had a smoke in his mouth and a beer in one hand while he hit Ember on the back of the head with the other. “Idiot.”

The rest of the day was downhill from there, before it was over Ember was sporting a black eye and a split lip. Not that anyone in this neighborhood who overheard cared, they had their own problems to worry about.

### Corneria City - City Hospital - 13 Years BLW

"Goddess....I look like a freak. I know, I know...I'm lucky. But still." The tan furred lupine turned her head this way and that in front of the small mirror she'd been handed, eyeing the line of stitches above her eyebrow where the fur had been shaved away. The small oddly tiger-striped wolf cub currently in her lap, reached out for the mirror trying to grasp at it.

The comment easily was vain, except Vixy already put together why the young woman before her cared. It hadn’t been admitted straight out how the young mother made her living "working nights", but you didn't work long in the city's downtown emergency department before learning how to read between the lines. The vixen took back the mirror above the child's head as his mother offered it back and set it on the counter beside her in the small curtained room. "It only looks bad right now. Just be careful not to pull on those stitches and after it heals and the fur grows back, no-one will notice it at all." She pullled off her gloves tossing them into a bin in the room and straightened her white jacket before asking a question she already knew the answer to. "You know, you could press charges on him."

Brown startled eyes looked back as the story she'd used to explain the injury hadn't been bought. "Wait, what, no, no there's nobody to charge. It was an accident. I swear." 

Vixy just frowned a little at her, and glanced at the cub and then back to it's mother. "There seems to be an awful trend of oddly clumsy accidents in that neighborhood. Forgive me, then." The tone of the words was obvious that the nurse believed not a word of it.

The woman shifted the cub from one side of her lap to the other as he squirmed and whined. "It's fine. Even if it wasn't fine, it wouldn't matter." She lowered her voice and looked down at the floor. "I'd be more likely to get thrown in jail than anything."

That brought a sympathetic look from the vixen. "Why do you say that?"

Anger replaced the slightly skittish look on the wolf's face when she replied. “Women who live in the Den are liars, didn't anyone tell you? Lot of girls I know have spent a few in the city jail because they "fabricated" some story, even if it was true. I'm not having them throw me in there and take away my son because there's noone to watch him then." 

Vixy paused, she'd known things were bad in the city, but not to that extent. She tried to come up with the right thing to say in reply but the moments of silence stretched for what seemed like minutes. "I hadn't realized. I'm sorry." Inwardly the red-furred nurse seethed, it was far too believable among all the other things she'd seen in the past four years to imagine that the young woman was wrong. Outwardly, she pulled the mask of professionalism back into place as she pulled open a drawer and handed several small packets to her patient. “I would normally give you a script but I have some samples on hand for the antibiotic gel you should use for the next week.” When the woman headed towards the check out desk, the red and black furred vixen glanced over the filled waiting room and called the next name.

By the time she finally stepped into the light-rail station the moon was full and bright overhead, casting a blue illumination on the streets below. She leaned tiredly on the post, one hand holding onto the loop above her as she watched out the window. The immediate downtown of the hospital and government buildings gave way to office buildings, some of which were closed and boarded. Beyond that stood older homes, and then smaller apartments, followed by the subsidized housing. Neighborhoods she remembered growing up in were now in disrepair, graffiti littered the walls and signs. The ride was a daily reminder that things were only getting worse for a lot of the people in Corneria. Past warehouses and fields the train sped on, before coming to a stop in a fairly quiet residential area. She stepped out and began the short walk home, past the rows of modest, but relatively new townhouses and apartments.

James lounged on the couch inside, flipping through channels on the muted T.V when she walked in. “Hey beautiful, how was your shift?” He walked over and wrapped an arm around his wife, nuzzling her cheek for a moment with his own. 

“It..was fine James. Just long.” She gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek before slipping out of his grasp and setting down her bag. 

“Well, good thing I made your favorite dinner then. I’ll grab you a plate hrm?” Turning to do just that, he frowned when he set the plate down on the table. The vixen was just putting her head in her hands tiredly and staring off into nowhere, entirely unlike his usually exuberant mate. “Vixy?” He set a hand on her shoulder, eyebrows furrowing in concern. 

“I’m sorry, I’m just not hungry.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing, everything.” The chair squeaked against the floor as she pushed it back and stood up, crossing the kitchen towards the window and leaning one arm against it as she looked out to the street. James watched quietly, waiting for her to continue. “I had a five year old today who’d been hit by a laser gun James. On his way to kindergarten.”

“Lov-“

“Two infants who were so malnourished that if we’d had the space for them, I would have admitted them. Except we didn’t. We haven’t all week. Abused women too frightened to go to the police, and I lost track of the number of patients who didn’t have an address at all.” She leaned her head against the cool glass of the window. “I thought unification was supposed to make all of this better, not worse. That’s the only reason I supported it. One system, with all the resources it needed to serve all of it’s citizens.” 

James crossed the kitchen and gently pulled the vixen towards him. “That’s the only reason any of us wanted to fight in it Vixy.”

“Except things only gotten worse since! We won the war, we unified the system, and we apparently forgot everything we were supposed to fix! We moved an entire world of refugees here and treat them like second class citizens!”

“You’re right, and that's entirely screwed up. But what you do every day makes it less so.”

“I patch people up after it already happens James. That doesn’t fix …this….this mess.” 

“Then we’re not done fighting for a world where it is fixed. I’m not ready to give up on it."

### Corneria City Military Base - Airfield - 12 Years BLW

Most people who wanted to see the Cornerian Military Annual Flight Show went in through the front gate. If you were a pilot or crew and then it was the side gate. If you were Ember O'Donnell and didn’t remotely have the money for a ticket it wasn’t a gate at all. Tall enough most mistook him for a couple of years older than he was, the gray and white furred wolf rounded the alley corner, and swung up onto the fire-escape at the small corner store next to the airfield fence. Dodging the view point of the two cameras, and he was up and over the top of the first fence as if it hadn’t been there. From there he crouched int the tall grass, around the corner of the cargo check-station and through the hole in the second fence. Piece of cake. And this is supposed to be hard? Ember grinned as he waited for the right time to make the last dash towards the crowd and then blend in. A smug grin spread over the boy’s face, anticipation of how great the rest of his day was going to be replacing the prior caution. 

The crowd was mostly full of families and young couples, with a few older men who looked like retired military, of just about every species and kind native to Corneria. Ember had pulled up the hood on his light jacket, as the only other wolves he saw in the crowd were some well to do looking family with the oldest female, he suspected the mom of the others, wearing a military uniform of Corneria herself. Apparently it pays well though. He snorted to himself seeing how well dressed and fed her children looked, then rifted through the crowd working his way close enough to the front he would be able to see the planes and pilots before they took off. 

Purple eyes gazed longingly at the assortment of fighters on the tarmac, imagining what it would be like to be one of the pilots about to fly them, walking out in front of everyone and waving to applause before leaving the ground behind. He ducked behind someone else as he saw some of the security for the event looking around at the crowd before he went back to watching the first two teams in the air. They were good, but he knew the last one would be best, the last one was his favorite team.

Inside the hangar, James was giving a last minute check over the Arwings with a fairly critical eye. They planes were far from old, but lately more than a couple of things had broken. Mostly they had been minor but things that shouldn’t have been maintenance issues. Then the G-diffuser on the left top wing of Peppy’s ship had gone out in the middle of a small skirmish on the edge of Cornerian space. G-diffusers might have been notoriously picky but they usually failed during take off, or landing as opposed to just randomly in space. He’d taken it to Space Dynamics himself when he got back, and the failure had puzzled the engineers there even, they could repair it but had no explanations for how the damage had occurred. It made James uneasy, there was a trend there but not one he could point at clearly enough to tell anyone else. At the moment he was trusting his instincts that something was going on and he ought to find out what. Going over the landing gear on Pigma’s plane one last time, his ears twitched as he heard yelling and cursing from outside. Making sure his blaster was in the hidden back holster he was wearing, he stepped out to see what was going on.

Two of the men assigned to security detail were struggling to contain what looked like one of the refugees from Ervi who was hopelessly held by the larger men as he tried to break free of them. The effort was in vain, he was still obviously a child, probably not even in high-school yet and after a moment he went quiet. James saw the guards relax just slightly, and while the skinny boy’s ears were down and tail hung limp he caught the look on the lupine’s face. No, the kid wasn’t giving up, he was waiting for those who held him to get sloppy, and try again.

Ember looked over at that moment, purple eyes pausing on the fox team lead who was staring at him. There was James McCloud watching him get hauled off, of all the people in an entire system to watch him fail, it had to be the one he admired. It was then the wolf dipped his gaze to the ground, the taste of disappointment and bitterness sour in his mouth. Whatever came next really didn’t concern him as much as being carted off like this humiliated him, a reminder of how much less he was worth than the man who stood no more than twenty paces from him. 

James had been about to turn and go when he’d seen the change in the boy’s expression as their gaze briefly me and he stopped himself short. The well-natured fox had seen looks like that before, but usually on the faces of other soldiers or mercenaries when things had gone disastrously wrong in one way or another and they had given up. It disturbed the man to see it painted in such earnest on a kid. Instead he stepped forward with a devil-may-care grin and slight swagger as if he was of higher rank than the guards.

“What’s this?” Two doberman soldiers wearing olive colored uniforms had a firm grip on the smaller lupine. They looked at each other for a moment, unsure why a pilot felt the need to ask. Normally they’d have told him to go back about his business, but the man was tied with General Pepper. If he had the General’s ear, or worse, the General had sent him this time, it would bode poorly for both of their careers to stand in the way. The brown and black colored canine on the left answered in a gravelly voice “Just some kid who snuck in. We’ll get his name and call his parents to come pick him up. Nothing to worry about.”

Ember muttered under his breath as the two men kept their grasp on him. “How do you know I didn’t just walk in with a ticket? Maybe it’s in my pocket and you’re just looking for someone to pick on.” 

The doberman on the right of him just gripped him harder. “Can it kid, we got you on film.” To which the kid just cursed under his breath with words that James was pretty sure someone that age shouldn’t know, and put folded his arms. 

“You mean the kid snuck past two fences, at least three of you on duty, and the only reason you even know he did it was because he didn’t take out the cameras first? You’re really giving me confidence here. I’m thinking I”m glad it was some kid who wanted to see planes instead of oh, say… one of those spies from the underground rebellion on Zoness we keep hearing about.” The other two soldiers looked over at the fox who was far shorter than they, wearing his team jacket instead of a military uniform. The distaste on their face for the interference just meant that James kept talking, as if it was no more important than the weather they were discussing. “I mean, what do we tell General Pepper when a kid can nearly defeat our security? I’d hate to be you when he finds out.” Now Ember was staring at James like he’d gone nuts too. “Unless of course, we just say he’s a guest of mine and call it a day.”

“But ..” Started one of the dobermans before the other one elbowed him hard and whispered in his partners ear the name of the aforementioned general. “You sure you want to do that, sir?” 

“Yeah, I’m sure.” James motioned for the wolf to come over towards him and the guards let go of him. For a moment Ember glanced between the two confused before taking a couple of tentative steps towards the pilot. “Now who are you?” He looked down at the gray-furred wolf, who seemed to take a few seconds before registering the question as he stared back up at the older fox.

“Ember” Confusion was all over the expression that met James back, head tilted as he didn’t understand why anyone here wasn’t chasing him off. After another moment’s hesistation the words came tumbling out, half suspicious and half disbelieving “And you’re James McCloud.…so why are you helping me?”

The fox raised an eyebrow at the attitude the young lupine sported, then again, could you really blame the kid with half the stories Vixy brought home? “Why not, kid.”

Ember could feel his face going red, and he kicked at the ground a moment and put his gaze elsewhere. “Yeah, well, thanks but, I dont want your pity.” Embarrassment wasn’t something he liked to show, it came out as anger instead. He turned back around a second later though hearing laughter from the pilot. His hero was laughing at him? There was a snarl in his throat that died when James also slapped him lightly on the back as if it was a grand joke between them.

“Pity? Are you kidding me? I’m pretty certain “pity” isn’t the right word when you managed to get past everything but the hidden cameras."

Wide purple eyes looked back up at him, debating for a moment more before deciding to take the words as genuine. “Figures they’d have ones to see that weren’t the real ones. I should have thought of that.”

James just shook his head and grinned, as he heard the crowd clapping for the second team that was coming back and Peppy was coming up towards the two of them. “You really wouldn’t be the first to miss that. That said, I think that’s my cue to run.”

“Yeah, show and all. Um…thanks.” Ember reached up and scratched behind one ear a little awkwardly before a hint of a grin showed through. “You mean fly, who would run when you can do that?” 

“Nobody I know, that’s for sure kid.” James took a glance behind him and then towards the kid again. “You ever been up in one?” The wolf shook his head no with a look that clearly said anybody who might even ask that wasn’t paying attention. “Didn’t think so. Tell y’what, you’re small enough for the backseat in mine, and I did tell the guard you’re my guest. C’mon.”

“Wait, what?!” The exclamation came from the hare now standing behind James. Peppy frowned and reached up scratching behind an ear, giving his team lead a disapproving look. “I’m not so sure that’s the best lesson to be teaching a kid, James. Sneak out and break into a military base isn’t exactly the kind of thing his parents probably want him up to. Assuming they wont throw a fit you let him in a plane to begin with."

Blue eyes were rolled as James had the same opinion of Peppy’s answer that Ember was quickly forming about the older hare as a whole. Stodgy. “Well, I’m not going to take it back now that I’ve said it old man.” He was about to ask the cub where his parents indeed were when the scrappy boy angrily interjected. 

There was a look of absolute distaste on Embers’s face when reference to asking his parents for permission showed up. Permission? Yeah, right. Pierce didn’t care what he did until it came up and when it did it was never good. He wasn’t going to get his ass beat for anybody, even StarFox. “You think I’d be sneaking in here if my old man cared a whit where I was or what I was up to? Give me a break. He’s probably already drunk today, as long as I stay out of his way I’m good."

Peppy blinked, staring as he was mouthed off to and tilted his head one ear flopping down halfway, the expression on his face reading clear as day he hadn’t been expecting such an answer. James on the other hand, took notice of things more subtle than the snarky tone. That the young lupine had balled his fists up and slightly shifted his stance, and was watching both the pilots warily now. Despite the fact it was two grown men, one of whom had just helped him, the kid was talking to, he was acting as if he expected someone to come at him, probably without even noticing he’d done so. The vulpine frowned, seeing a lot more about this kid’s life than the fact he was just poor. James turned to Peppy putting an apparently carefree grin on his face. “Well there you go, go find a cup of tea and stop shaking your head at me. We’ll do this, and afterwards I’ll take the kid for a spin. We’ll be back practically before you can twitch your whiskers in disapproval.” The hare just threw his hands up and stalked off towards the Arwings at that point. “Don’t mind him kid, he’s a good guy he just likes to worry about everything."

The young wolf found himself just nodding as he watched two of the members of team Starfox open the hatch to their respective ships and climb up into the cockpits. All the while his eyes followed their tricks in the air and disbelieving entirely that it was him who was going to be up there shortly. When the show was over and the crowd was going home, true to his word James came back, walking up still in his flight jacket. The two doberman guards hadn’t left, but hadn't said anything until James came back. “Do you make a habit of just talking to every random kid that likes you?”.

James was carrying his spare headset in one paw and handed it to Ember with a smirk. “All of the ones who hop security fences at least. Here, put that on, you wont need it but may as well see what that’s like too.” It sat a little awkwardly as Ember fitted it around his ears. “You ever been in a ship that wasn’t a big transport before?” The kid shook his head no, which was no surprise. “Gotcha, no triple barrel rolls then. Say something if you feel sick ok?” The nod, and look of determination that such wouldn’t happen made James chuckle. 

Ember scrambled right up the ladder into the backseat of the fighter, and while James settled into the front was looking at all of the controls and displays in the cockpit. The fox turned around to point out how the boy should strap in and make sure it was right. A pair of aviator sunglasses was flopped into place as he went through a quick pre-flight check, “Hold onto your seat, kid."


	6. Don't Tell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which dreams are created and nearly destroyed in the same moment, and dark things are on the distant horizon - all mixed up in the mundane business of Corneria.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slowly, but surely I suppose is how this story is going to be. Inspiration has been lacking, and, real world stress is taking a lot of toll on me in other ways. Such is. That said, here’s the next chapter. I’m trying to expand a bit better on younger Wolf’s personality which I realized was fairly flat (whoops?) and Pepper's motivations. As always, I love seeing reviews, and constructive criticism is more than welcome. Some of the dialogue here probably shows I was a kid of the 90s (yeah I’m ancient for the internet, I know) but oh well. That said, I realize this may not be the most action packed chapter, but hopefully it puts some pieces into place about some of the characters involved. Also, I realize this is easily 20ish years before the Aparoids war, but I seem to recall it’s canon that they show up earlier.

_“But who could bear to know which stars were already dead, she thought, blinking up at the night sky; could anybody stand to know that they all were?” ― J.K. Rowling, The Casual Vacancy_

** Corneria City Military Base - Airfield - 12 Years BLW **

Ember stared out the glass of the Arwing, violet eyes wide as he stared down at the distant ground speeding by them. When James banked the plane down in a bit of a dive before pulling up, pressing them both into their seats, it caught the young wolf pup by surprise. The feeling of momentary weightlessness mingled with a vague instinctual sense of courting danger. He could hear the air rushing by the slim shape of the plane, and for a moment there existed nothing else in his world. His father, even the guards this morning, all if it may as well have been a different life that had happened to someone else for as far away as it seemed now. Every sound of the instrumentation, every light that he could see from his seat on the console, all of it rolled into an undeniable feeling of freedom as addictive as any drug. 

“You doing alright back there, kid?” Oversized aviator sunglasses glanced up for a brief moment from the screen and glass ahead of them towards a mirror to check on his passenger. The vulpine pilot let out a small chuckle under his breath seeing Ember’s expression. He remembered his first ride in a fighter as well, even though it had been many years ago and he’d been older than this kid. James was fairly certain he’d worn the exact same expression the entire time. 

“Yeah! This is great!” 

“Well, how about one trick before we go back down then?” The moment James heard a yes from the backseat he pulled the Arwing up into a loop, dropping it back down several meters behind where he’d started. 

“Holy shit. THAT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!” Ember might have held on to the edge of the seat a bit white knuckled as they flipped upside down, but he wasn’t admitting that.

“Language, kid. But yeah it kind of is isn’t it?” James chuckled again as he brought them back around towards the base. 

Ember glanced down a bit at the admonishment. Noone really cared how he talked most of the time, but he found himself caring about how this man in particular saw him. “Er..sorry. Sir. But totally!” 

James just shook his head in mild amusement as he pulled the Arwing to a gentle landing and eventual stop. He knew he’d probably be getting an earful about this more than once later, but he didn’t really mind in the slightest. He swung out of pilots seat with practiced ease and turned around to offer a hand to his younger passenger. “Do me a favor huh? Keep this mostly between us? As cool as it would be to tell all your friends and all.” He started walking with Ember towards one of the base gates, giving a nod to the guard there.

The grey furred wolf nodded. “Yeah, I get it. It would just get us both in trouble. I figured that much.” He looked up, a lopsided grin on his face. “Thanks. That.. that was really cool. And for getting me out of trouble with those guards.”

“You’re welcome, Ember. Looked like you could use it and I’m always happy to have an excuse to go up in the air again.” James winked once at the young man. “You live far from here?”

“Nah, not that far. Hey, um, could I ask you something?” 

“Shoot.”

“How’d you get to be a pilot? I mean, I know how you got to be a famous one, everybody does but how do you get to start out even?”

The older pilot gave an amused laugh at the question. “Same way everyone does, nothing special to tell there. Get into flight academy, graduate, and you either join the military or sign up with a mercenary group right after. I joined the military, of course. Let me guess, your next question is how do you get into said academy” Ember nodded without interrupting the vulpine. “Works just like the other universities in the system, apply your last year of high school, except there’s a few extra tests and all.”

Ember bit his lip lightly. “Heard that takes a lot of money.”

“You usually make it back pretty quickly if you’re a decent pilot, but yeah, it is.” James watched behind his sunglasses the way the boy tried to hide how much that news disappointed him. “There are a few scholarships each year. If you score high enough on the tests or a few other ways.” Ember gave a single nod, despite the fact that he suspected that nobody would ever be giving anybody like him such a thing to go to something like flight academy. 

James McCloud had always been good at reading people, a skill he usually used to keep his own tail out of trouble (or as a student himself in younger years into particular forms of it that were to his liking). He glanced down, pulling the sunglasses far enough that blue eyes met violet ones. “Y’know kid, you want something enough, with enough conviction? You’ll find a way. Dreams only die if you let them."

Ember stared for a moment, nearly taking a step back away from the rather intense gaze of the vulpine. This man actually believed what he said, instead of saying it because Ember might want to hear it. Tilting his head for a moment, befuddled by the apparent honesty and weighing the words before deciding just maybe.. he believed it too. He nodded once again. “Got it. Um, Thanks. Again.” 

James stopped where the second gate to the main street opened, giving a wave as Ember started to head down the sidewalk. He paused a moment and then called after him. "Tell you what though, next year, just tell the guards you’re with me instead of sneaking in again. Less trouble for everyone that way.”

“You bet!”

** Corneria City - Senate Budget Committee Chambers - 12 Years BLW **

Stacks of paper were scattered across a long wooden table in the chamber room, the dark finish of the table nearly invisible under the mounds of figures and requests. Several leather chairs were pulled up to the table, filled with a small number of senators . Each was surrounded by a handful of aides and staff, some of whom were taking notes, others running more mundane errands such as fetching coffee. Discussion in the room at the moment was periodic, every so often one breaking the silence to pose a question to the others in the room. The fervent debating would come later, on the main senate floor, but only after an initial proposal had been hashed out here. 

“Dani, do you have those figures ready?” Senator Jasmine Kommuru glanced up from her own tablet towards the aide that had just entered the room. 

“Yes ma’am.” The brown and tan furrred wolfess quickly crossed the distance and tapped on her own tablet and made a swiping motion, sending the data over to the Senator’s screen. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, a well tailored black suit and white blouse highlighting the muscular build the aide had rather than accentuate her curves. “Pages one through fourteen cover the figures for the past decades trend in all areas of public health and welfare spending, going from largest categories to smallest. Pages fourteen to thirty-seven are summaries of the last years budget for each associated department, and the remaining are the estimated budgets from those heads of department for an equivalent level of services this year. At the end of each estimated budget are the additional requests along with justifications for each, which are summarized in a table in Appendix B."

“Thank you Dani.” Senator Kommuru began sifting through the pages on her tablet glancing over the gist of the data. “How bad is it? Just so I have a rough clue before Senator Chadwick gets back from lunch and starts tearing this apart?” The red panda stopped looking at the data and glanced back over at her aide, a wry smile that didn’t reach her eyes on her masked face.

“It could be worse. Most of the budgets for equivalent services didn’t increase from last year, and the majority of the requests are actually small. Nothing like last years with the additional planetary systems integrating some of their departments with ours. Realistically speaking, I think most of it we could get approved. I already put meetings on your calendar for the rest of the weeks lunches with the heads of the departments with the highest increase requests, although I have not sent out the invitations pending your approval.”

“Always one step ahead.” Kommuru gave her aide a genuine smile as she started to skim through the data then paused on a particular page. “Would you rather be in the chamber or not when we debate the budget for the Department of Refugee Affairs?” The senator looked up at the young woman, with a slightly uncomfortable look on her face.

Dani already knew why her boss was asking, last year’s meeting had involved several senators tossing back and forth the stereotypes that had since been formed about those who had come from Ervi years before, which were broadly extended to all lupines. Even though a few lupine families had been on Corneria for close to a century, and a few had risen to positions of prominence in the military or government, the notion that they were a backwater species incapable of integrating into society at large had persisted. Over a decade of clash between Cornerian law and the tribal clan structure that had rapidly disintegrated hadn’t helped, nor the fact that the stereotype of hot tempers might have been somewhat justified. “I would, if anything, they can stare me in the face while they spout their nonsense. Besides, last year when I didn’t attend I heard all of it anyways later.” There was a small grin, showing hints of long white fangs. 

“Done. That might actually keep a few of them slightly more in line, having to do that.” Jasmine sighed and rubbed at her eyes before picking up the tepid mug of coffee from the table. Another aide knocked on the door and stuck a tabby striped feline head in the door. “Lieutenant General Brun and Major General Pepper are here for their input on the proposed military budget."

There was a bit of shuffling in the room as various papers were cleared and seats arranged to give at least some semblance of formality as the other senators made their way back into their seats and then the aide waved in. Dani forced herself not to glare at Senator Chadwick as the fennic fox gave a look of distaste seeing the lupine’s presence. 

“Good afternoon, senators.” The larger form of General Brun stepped into the room first, followed by General Pepper. “I trust you all had time to review our proposed military budget, so I would suspect it’s best we begin there with your questions."

A gray-furred fox glanced at the other faces in the line of Senators and then spoke first. “The increase you’ve asked for is fairly large, especially given that we’re currently in a time of peace. Most of it seems to be related to defense spending, however. Obviously we’ve reviewed the line items where they’ve been specified but the discretionary spending is the majority. The budget committee would like to hear the justification for those kind of increases."

Pepper hung back as the more senior General answered. “Simply put, the defenses we have at the outer planets are insufficient. Were there to be any sort of threat from outside the system they would be within a short light-hop of Cornerian air-space before we could engage them properly.”

“In the entire written history of the Lylat system we’ve never had a war with another system. The costs of mounting such an attack are far greater than any society we know of could remotely support. I’d like to remind you that we have several departments that are grossly underfunded right now, and we cannot defend funding military capabilities against an enemy that doesn’t exist.” Senator Yun continued, looking over his glasses at the two generals. 

Pepper gave a glance at the other man beside him, something exchanged in the look that Dani could see, but didn’t understand. Pepper stepped forward, taking a tablet from his briefcase. “If I may?” He motioned to the screen behind him with a hand, and after receiving a nod from Senator Yun put up a picture onto the screen. “Please remember, this is classified information, currently only the Cornerian Air and Space Defense Fleet and those contractors with appropriate clearance are aware of any of this information.” Several gasps were heard from various corners. Dani herself took a step backwards covering her mouth, eyes wide. Spread across the far wall of the chamber was a clear photo of the wreckage of several Cornerian fighter ships. Utterly destroyed, there were clear marks of a firefight on pieces of the wreckage. While unexpected, that wasn’t what had startled the room. Hovering above the wrecked ships was a fan of purple wings connected to one central…. something. Dani didn’t have a word for it, she couldn’t tell if it was a a ship, a machine, or something that itself was alive. 

“Four months ago the crew of the 32nd Fleet of the CASD was killed in action. If you remember, this was reported as an engine containment failure on an experimental propulsion system. That was not the case. The entity see you see on the screen here was captured by one of the few surviving fighter pilots who eventually managed to neutralize the threat. We are not sure of the origin of this entity, but we do know that it is versed in both psychological and physical warfare, and attacked without warning. Our crew was giving an option to unconditionally surrender, and when refused, it nearly destroyed the entire fleet. Single-handedly.” General Pepper paced the room slowly, glancing up at the screen with furrowed brows. “Obviously I would like to believe that this was an anomaly, or a singular entity that we will never see the likes of again. I hope you all can understand why I am not willing to run on that assumption. We lost nearly two hundred men and women that day, to take out a single enemy. I cannot, and will not, stand to allow that to repeat itself."

A couple more shots showing different angles on the creature were shown as Pepper continued, attempting to keep his voice level. He’d personally made the phone calls to the relatives of the 32nd Fleet, which had been under his chain of command. Even during the worst of the war for unification, he’d not lost so many men in a short time span, much less a single day. Sometimes he dreamed of that strange creature, as alien and unlike anything he’d run into before as it was. A few whispered conversations were happening between the senators before Senator Kommuru stood up.

She leaned over the table looking at the picture and then the two military men . “I…see Generals. I do have a question however. While, I think we can all agree that you’ve presented evidence of a very credible threat, as you mentioned this is classified information. We need to find a way to justify it to the public, at least in broad strokes. I have another large request on my desk, along with many smaller ones. All of which are for the public good on Corneria. Not only do I need to justify why we would give you the funding without revealing this, but how it is a better trade off than the services we desperately need here.”

General Brun nodded once. “We can work with you on what can or should be revealed to the public.” The larger man didn’t care to really negotiate the issue, and scowled just slightly when Pepper continued without consulting him.

“If I might ask, which services are those?”

“In no particular order, medical research, public university funding, and the Department of Refugee Affairs.”

The hound scratched at his chin for a moment in thought, before speaking again. “Do correct me if I’m wrong here, but one of the requests last year was regarding job training and opportunities for the former residents of Ervi?”

“Yes, one of the larger ones.”

“What if we could promise to establish a training program specifically to bring more of their members into the CASD? That would allow us to have some of each solution.” General Brun was staring at General Pepper in disbelief as he continued. “I’ll happily do so under my fleets General Brun. Depite the rumors of what Ervi natives are like, I seem to recall Senator Kommuru’s aide served us briefly, but rather well during the last war as a member.” He gave a brief nod to Dani who was still standing at the back of the room. Brun made a small face of distaste, but seeing the opportunity for in the best case, to get his funding, and in the worst case, lay fully the blame for the failure on Pepper’s shoulder, nodded once.

“I think, if you could get us numbers on that, as well as some thoughts on the press spin, we will work with that. I would still ask that you resubmit the request, classified with the right line items, and mark those in priority so we know where we have wiggle room, and where we do not. I think none of us here would want to compromise the security of the system given….whatever that was.”

“Absolutely, I know in the past sometimes the relationship between the brass and the senate has been strained, I’d like to change that.” Pepper gave the members of the senate a reassuring smile.


	7. Forks in the Road

_One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. - Friedric Nietzche_

 

** Corneria City - Taubert - 12 Years BLW **

Ember lifted the pixie-like white wolf cub into his arms from where she’d fallen asleep in one of the oversized chairs of the room. There was a soft noise as Lyra nuzzled against her brother’s shoulder, otherwise the girl didn’t stir from sleep. “Sorry I’m late getting here, Seeress Friast”

The older wolfess just shook her head at him, having long found the reprimands on timeliness useless. “I won’t ask what kept you this time Ember. Besides, your sister figured out a couple of hours ago you’d be late.”

Ember tilted his head, pondering that over as he’d only wound up being late because of a missed city bus connection, all of half an hour ago. Apparently yet another of those things Lyra knew for no good reason. Ingrid caught his glance and just shrugged at him, her mouth quirking in just a hint of an impish smile. “Don’t ask, Ember, you know nobody can give you those answers. Not even I can nor Lyra.” The older woman sighed, regarding the tiny wolf cub with a degree of concern in her violet eyes. “Not that I’ve ever gotten knowledge of such mundane things beforehand myself “

A quiet voice cut her off. “Our mom did. I know. I remember a couple of times.” He missed that life, the one where he lived in a small village with a sky full of different constellations. So different from here and now that it was surreal, almost as if it had happened in a book instead. Ember missed her most of all. He swallowed a bitter taste in the back of his throat, angry that she was gone. Who he was angry at he couldn’t say, not for that one. But he knew he was angry at someone for it.

Ingrid nodded, furrowing her eyebrows slightly “Indeed.” How different things would have been, she thought, if Amaltha was still here at least for those two. She sighed deeply before shaking her head slightly and turning her attention back to the reality in front of her. “You have a good night. Careful on the last two steps there, they’re coming loose. Especially carrying her” She motioned towards Lyra as they headed out the door. Shutting it behind them she watched through the window as Ember headed the three buildings over to their own residence.

Ember tapped on Lyra’s shoulder gently calling her name as he unlocked the door to their apartment. There was a tiny yawn as violet eyes looked sleepily back at him and she tried to bury her face in his shoulder again.

“C’mon powderpuff, I gotta make dinner. You can sleep after.”

He was met by a pout as he set her down and started rummaging in the small kitchen to figure out what he could make. He realized with some dismay that there really wasn’t much of anything at the moment, and with Pierce out he didn’t have any way to get something. Well, not quickly and legally. Searching a bit more he found a can of soup in the back of one of the upper cabinets. That’ll have to do at least it wont take long to heat up. He pulled out a small pot and dumped the contents inside.

A few minutes later Ember slid a bowl in front of Lyra, who looked over at her brother with a confused look as to why he didn’t have one. “I’m not the one whose about to go to bed, powderpuff.” In truth he’d just eat whatever she didn’t, and find something more tomorrow. “What did Ingrid teach you today?"

Lyra rubbed at her eyes again. “Funny symbols and their names. She says I have to learn all of them.”

“You’re smart, you’ll get them.”

“How come you don’t have to? Or anyone else at school?” Lyra looked up at him a bit of soup dripping off her chin before she rubbed at it with a napkin when he pointed it out.

 “We can’t use them like you or Ingrid can.” Ember wasn’t entirely sure how to explain to her just how different she was, or even whether he really should.

“Why not?” There was a peerish look given to her older brother, he was supposed to know these things after all!

“We just can’t. I don’t really know why.” His shoulders shifted upwards in a shrug which earned him a skeptical look before she accepted that he didn’t really know to tell her. She fell quiet then, eating and giving him a glance every so often to see if he’d changed his mind about knowing anything. The small cub shoved the empty bowl back from her and rubbed at her eyes again. “Alright, I think it’s bed time for somebody" Ember herded her towards their shared room and kissed the top of her head. “Brush your teeth and I”ll read you a story if you want. I got a book full of them at the library for you.”

“What’s it about?”

“Lots of things, it’s more than one story. There’s a story about a dragon, and another one about a bounty hunter who wound up becoming a king, one about an evil witch and I think a couple about fairies.”

“Fairies!” Lyra proclaimed before scampering into the bathroom to find her toothbrush.

“Ok, fairies it is” Ember grinned and waited for her before tucking her in and sat down next to her. By the time he had finished the story, his little sister had long fallen asleep again and he snuck out towards the living room, grabbing the stack of books from his bag. He’d looked up the requirements for flight academy, and found it required two years of physics to even be considered. Which while he was nowhere near that, it meant he had to be on the standard Rank 5 math track. Three tracks ahead of the one he was on *currently* (because he had no interest in things he couldn’t use, and it hadn’t seemed useful until he’d found that out). He was behind by a rank in nearly every other subject, which meant a lot of trying to play catch up if he was going to convince anyone to even let him try.

The cover on the last book closed as numbers swam in his head when he heard a whimper from the back room. He opened the door slightly, light from the living room spilling in a narrow band across the dark shapes of the two beds in the room and the toys in the room. Lyra was half-awake, violet eyes looking at him miserably as she shivered despite the covers she was under. “S’cold”.

He tilted his head, stepping in and putting the back of his hand to her forehead. Immediately a sense of panic set in, as the young wolf had no idea what to do. He quickly pondered a list of people he could ask. It was a short list, truthfully. Ember sat down on top of the covers and gently rubbing behind one of her ears. “I know powderpuff. Tell you what, it sucks, but, stay here for just a few minutes? I’ll be right back with something to help. Promise”

A whimper of objection met his words, another pair of eyes that matched his staring for a moment before nodding. With that, he bolted out the door, down the steps retracing his steps from earlier until he was pounding on Seeress Friast’s door.

 

**Corneria City - Home of Vixy and James McCloud - 12 Years BLW**

Kapow! The small image of an enemy ship split into a ball of fire and a million pixels before glittering into the black background of the screen. Beneath it sat two foxes on cushions stolen from the couch, a mostly empty bowl of popcorn between them.

“Again!” Came a jubilant cry from the six-year old victor.

James glanced over to the clock on the wall and shook his head. He wanted to stay up and play another game with his son, as they’d been doing all evening. But Vixy was already going to murder them both for how late he’d let Fox stay up. “No, not tonight kiddo. Tomorrow though, right after school.” 

Big green eyes looked up at James, the lighter colored fox looking up at him pleadingly, using the effect of innocence and ears he hadn’t grown into yet to the fullest. It was uncanny to the older vulpine how well his son managed to cajole what he wanted from people. Then again, his grandparents had just laughed and told James it only indicated how much after his father the little kit took.

“Okay, fine, one more, but only one! And then it is straight to bath-time with you and I am having no argument about it mister!”

Fox gave his dad a scrunched up look and a pout. “Space pirates don’t have to take baths!” He folded his arms and looked stubbornly upwards.

“Oh you better believe they do. Your old dad would know.”

Fox paused and blinked and tilted his head. “But space pirates do whatever they want!”

“Space pirates don’t like the girls running away from them because they smell like yesterday’s garbage, is what space pirates want.” James chuckled, as it was a toss up as to whether his son had a “girlfriend” or all girls had cooties on any given week at school.

The orange kit looked thoughtful for a moment, before nodding his head slightly with a look of resignation. He glanced up a moment later at the darker colored todd, checking again that he couldn’t get another answer.

James just laughed and shook his head as his son, setting the game to start again. Just as they were finishing up he heard keys in the door of the apartment, as his wife stepped in a moment later. He gave a sheepish grin to her , sitting on the floor amid cushions and spilled popcorn. “Hi honey."

The controller Fox held dropped in favor of bolting towards the vixen who gently dropped the messenger bag she carried to the floor and lifted him up into a hug. “Did Dad talk you into letting him stay up past his bedtime again?” Green eyes sparkled as she shot a glance towards her husband, teasing him with the comment as her kit just giggled at her. A moment later she set him down and James herded him down the hallway.

“Alright, we got caught, it’s rubber duck time for you buddy.” James’ voice echoed down the small hallway as she shook her head and started picking up the cushions and setting the living room back to rights. By the time her husband came back, quiet had descended upon the apartment and she was sitting at the kitchen table a glass of red wine in front of her.

“I assume a lady such as yourself would grant a scruffy space merc a few minutes of her company.” Vixy just rolled her eyes at him with a grin, while lhe kissed the top of her head and sat down beside her. “There’s casserole in the fridge. It’s not even burned!”

There was a light laugh at the exclamation. “Is that because Vivian brought it over out of pity for you?”

“No…. although she might have been on speed dial for questions.” Impish blue eyes glanced over meeting hers, in a look he’d given her since their second or third date. She reached over, running a couple fingers across his cheek fur.

“Well, color me impressed then. I’ll get a piece in a minute. I just want to sit for a second, you know how doubles are.“

James nodded at her. “Rough, as always. Good to get it out of the way for the week though.” He paused a moment considering when to mention and went ahead with his next thought. “Got a job that will take a few days today.”

Vixy lowered her voice despite the fact Fox was asleep. “You’ll be back for his birthday party right?”

“Hell or high water. Granted that’s a strange expression to use in space travel as there’s not exactly water in m-” Vixy lightly swatted him with a hand on his arm.

“Spare me the science diatribe, I know what you meant. You do not get to leave me to deal with ten small children by myself.”

“No, especially not if they’re Fox’s friends. Oh, before I forget, you told Gina we’d help her pay for summer camp right?”

“I did, she didn’t want to accept it at first I don’t think but Falco’s talked about nothing but going to camp with Fox for a week and she knows she can’t scrape together enough on her own.” The two foxes shared a glance with each other, a far more somber tone in the room for a moment. “Be careful James, I don’t care if the mission is easy.”

“You know I will be” In an instant the serious tone vanished off her husband’s face again. “Besides, have you seen what Peppy does when people take unneeded risks? He can still manage to bend a grown man’s ear like a kit’s and have them scrubbing planes with a toothbrush!”

“You, on the floor, shirtless, scrubbing things? I think I’d pay to see that.” She hid the rest of her grin behind her glass.

“Well all you had to do was ask.” James winked back at her as he stood up and pulled out a plate for his wife.

The quiet sounds of dishes being washed drifted from the kitchen as Vixy went to read Fox his bedtime story, which the small kit fell asleep halfway through. Vixy smiled and got up silently stepping into her own shared room and flopping down bonelessly onto the bed. A short while later she felt a hand on her back as her husband came in to join her.

“Hey, pretty lady. It’s more comfortable under the blankets than on them.” A gentle kiss was placed on her cheek as she scooted over to her side of the bed, and an arm wrapped around her as James curled up with her.

“I love you too, you goof.”

 

**Corneria City - Taubert - 12 Years BLW - 9:00pm Local Time**  

Three knocks rapped on the door in the alley, followed by a moment of silence, followed by a subsequent four knocks. The camera to the side of the door came to life with a whrr and the glow of red light that spilled onto the black furred wolf in front of it. Another moment of silence later the sound of gears and locks unlatching could be heard, and the heavy metal door swung open. The dingy brick facade of the building gave way to a small, but extremely well reinforced metal hallway that led to a large windowless room.

A single fixture cast a dull yellow illumination down from the ceiling to the rooms occupants. Lupines of various shades of gray, brown, red and black sat in most of the chairs, heated debate going back and forth between them and paying no mind to the new comer. Pierce sat down in one of the empty seats, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it as he listened to the current conversations around him.

“Aren’t you angry about it?” One furious looking female demanded of the larger brown-furred male near her.

“Of course I’m angry about it, but what do you think I can do about it woman.” The speaker glared back at her, the slight curl of a snarl on his face. The other wolf backed down a little, with a frustrated sigh. “S’what you always say.”

“Doesn’t make it one little bit less true. Besides, isn’t that why we’re here? Figure that out?”

Someone came up behind Pierce and shoved a warm cup of coffee into his free hand. “You look like shit.” Pierce twisted his neck to gaze upwards at source of the voice. Lilith Tassarion, a tall and lithe woman whose fur began as red on her ears and faded to a light tan by the time it hit her shoulders and disappeared underneath a black tank top, looked back down at him.

“Yeah, well.” Pierce ignored the comment in favor of taking a sip of the coffee as Lilith flopped down into the seat next to him.

“Shall I catch you up? You only missed two meetings so far. We’re just kind of getting started.” There was a non committal grunt back from the man that was taken as agreement. “We’re trying to figure out how to deal with the fact everyone else in this damn city seems to think we’re good targets to steal from. Granted, we don’t have the fancy security systems that some places do, but we’re through with this nonsense. Sven’s business got broken into last night. Third time this year.” She gave a nod to the man who had been talking earlier.

Another non committal grunt acknowledged that he’d at least heard what she said. Her eyebrows furrowed as she leaned in closer. “Pierce, we need your help.”

“Look where that got us last time.” He took another long drag off the cigarette in his hand and lifted his gaze enough to meet hers.

“Better than where we were.”

Pierce just shrugged, not wanting to argue the point. “If you say so. But what the hell can I do for you now?”

“We only have a handful of people that know anything about electronics, you know that. Some of us are…learning, but, we could use somebody that knows the basics already. We..might be able to get some lower-tech pieces of security systems, not the whole thing though. We wanted to put them together and up in the places getting hit the most often, and then see if we cant get more for everyone.”

Eyebrows were furrowed and he looked at her “The things I used to play with on Ervi have..little resemblance to the technology they use now, it was children’s wooden blocks compared to master carpenter.”

“Yeah we’ll you’re the only kid in the room that had a set of wood blocks, the rest of us are still working that much out.” A pointed glare was directed at him. “Besides, it’s not like your busy doing anything else Pierce.”

His hackles stood up for a moment and the snarl spread across his muzzle before she stood up and looked down at him. “Harsh, but true. And you know it. Amaltha would kick your ass so many ways it’s not even funny if she saw you right now.”

Pierce froze in place, his wife’s name unspoken to his own ears for so long it was as if someone had ripped his home out from underneath him all over again. It took his breath away for a moment, although he knew what Lilith said was true and he shoved that thought out of his mind. “On one condition.”

“Hah, like we have a lot of conditions to play with here. What condition is that?”

“You never bring her up again in my presence. You understand?”

Lilith blinked, and tilted her head, then nodded twice. “Alright. Let me show you what we got our hands on.”

 

**Corneria City - Downtown Business District - 12 Years BLW - 10:00 pm Local Time**

 

The disapproving gaze of the husky beside him on the black leather seat of the sleek government sedan didn’t deter Cornelius in the slightest. If it had been for his personal gain, he would have backed down. This, however, as most of his dealings were lately, were about far more than himself. He kept a perfectly calm exterior waiting for the senator to speak.

“So, let me make sure I’m completely clear on this. You are telling me that if I co-sponsor this…Cornerian Citizens Act, which I’m not promising I will, but if I do, you can make sure that my district gets the new school it’s wanting? How does that even work, you’re military, they don’t make those decisions.”

“My good man, it’s not about my official job title. You do me a favor, I do you a favor. Sometimes, people need favors and decide to owe me one. In the end, everybody wins.”

“But you’re certain about the school.”

“Absolutely. I don’t offer what I cannot deliver. You already have most of the committee votes you need, you’re three shy at the last time it came up. I can bring you three more votes for the school.”

“Alright, but I feel you have me at a disadvantage. Why is the Cornerian Citizens Act so important to you?” The husky’s blue eyes wandered over the other man’s uniform and the two stars indicating his rank, attempting to reconcile what the canine requested with his position.

General Pepper chuckled. “A fair enough question. It’s really very cut and dry when you look at it, most of the surveillance provisions in that bill will help make sure that Corneria knows of problems as they start, not once they’ve become huge. Of course, it changes nothing about where we do and don’t interfere, it just gives us better knowledge of whats going on. I’d much rather deal with threats to the current system and government before things are large enough to get ugly. It means less of my men dead, less civillians dead, less collateral damage, I mean..you get my point.”

The husky looked thoughtful. “So, if I do co sponsor this bill, and it fails?”

“The deal isn’t for passage, it’s just for your sponsorship. Obviously I expect you to truly sponsor it and attempt to garner support, which I know you’re quite good at Senator Brant.”

The husky waved a hand at him to interrupt “Of course, I’m merely making the distinction between garnering support and the actual passage. Yes, I hold sway, but only with the Traditionalist and Labor parties. A few of the independents will take it seriously, but I have no respect other than as a fellow senator within the others."

The canine smiled slightly. “Don’t worry about the other parties too much. Handle things as you usually would.”

There was a moment of hesitation, and then a single nod from the husky in agreement. When the car pulled in front of the Capitol building, Senator Brant exited and didn’t glance back at the car behind him which would drop Cornelius off back at his home.

 

**Corneria City - Taubert - 12 Years BLW - 11:00pm Local Time**

Ember glanced at the clock cringed for a moment as he heard the door open, before setting his jaw, ears laid back as he expected a drunken Pierce to stumble in and start in again. His eyes were a bit wider and one ear tilted back upwards in confusion when he saw a perfectly sober version of his father walk into the door quietly. The abnormality of that made something in Ember suspicious. Yellow eyes met his purple ones and glanced to the same clock after locking the door.

“Sorry I’m late tonight. Is your sister asleep?”

You could have knocked the younger wolf over with a feather at that point. That didn’t stop the anger that laced his answer. “She’s six, and sick, what do you think?”

The retaliation he expected for the smart remark never came, just a tired sigh. “If you haven’t eaten I brought you something back.” Pierce set down the bag in his hand. “Sick how?”

“Sick.” Ember shrugged eyeing the bag hungrily, forcing himself to resist till he knew what was going on. "Seerest Friast left you a note, I went and got her. She came over and brought stuff for Lyra”

Pierce raised an eyebrow at that and for a moment looked furious. He simply shook his head though the anger fading quickly to something else Ember couldn’t decipher and went to the door of Lyra’s room, violet eyes staring at him the entire time.

One black furred hand rested on the doorway for a moment, before looking back at the gray cub. “You did alright Ember."

 

**Corneria City - Cornerian Air and Space Defense Base - 11 Years BLW**

James pulled off his flight helmet, scratching behind an ear and running a hand through his head fur to shake it out. He hadn’t put it down before the fur on the back of his neck stood up, as if someone was watching him. He glanced around one hand dropping to his holster although didn’t draw when he saw the reason.

“On our own base James? You alright?” A tan and brown furred wolf in a business suit was standing on the tarmac. James relaxed and shook his head, offering an apologetic grin.

“Sorry, not home much these days, it’s habit. What brings you out here? Thought you never wanted to see this hangar again.”

Dani made a face and glanced around. “Well, not as a pilot anyways. But I’m not the one being connived into flying deathtraps anymore. That’s not why I’m here though, I’m here to talk to you.”

The fox just smiled as if it was a joke, although he knew it wasn’t. He was well aware of why the other former pilot felt that way and could hardly blame her. “Me? Did you lose my com number?”

“No, I…walk with me James.” The seriousness of Dani’s expression got him to drop the grin and follow along, well aware of the path she was taking, the one with the least cameras and where they weren’t likely to be overheard. They were well outside earshot of the hangar when she spoke again. “I need your help.” She glanced over to see the interested and confused look on her friend’s face before continuing. “If you don’t want to, I do understand. But I need someone who can get access to some information that…well. Let me start over and be more clear. The military budget - I should have access to all of it, the real one, supposedly. But, I’m pretty sure I don’t. I think CASD is trying to pull one over on the Senate.”

James quirked an eyebrow and looked thoughtful before replying “And you want me to get up to some old habits wondering if I still can, which yes, I can, I just don’t talk about it. To get you what you’re supposed to have anyways, but breaks several laws in the process.” Dani nodded with a scowl, hating to have to ask. “Tell me this though, why do you think there’s anything there to be found?”

“I paid attention when you showed me how to read some of those admin logs in the Central Document Database ever ago. Yes, James, it did come in handy. I owe you a beer, add it to the tab of at least two hundred beers and a life-debt I already owe you. The numbers just, they added up too neatly for a real budget. Somebody did a very good job of fiddling with some of that information, and truthfully it stood out. I started poking at the log and there’s whole chunks of it that just seem to be missing.”

“That is interesting, and I’d agree somethings up there. You dont’ know what you’re looking for though do you?’

Dani shook her head. “Not a clue. Look, I wouldn’t ask, but supposedly the temporary clearances were granted, all of that was supposed to be given to my office. I’m not interested in starting a witch hunt or a conspiracy theory here, I just want to know what we’re about to give millions of credits to CASD for, in general at least.”

There was a soft hrm from the vulpine. “Two conditions. One, I’ll look, but I’m only giving you the information if it really doesn’t match. There’s lines I wont cross and you know it depending on what they hid.” Dani nodded and interrupted him.

“Like I said James, I only want to know what’s going on, and that in a very general sense. I”m not interested in information I shouldn’t truly have or names. What’s the second condition?”

“You come over and share a beer with me and Vixy sometime soon over dinner.” James grinned at her. “We don’t go out much between our jobs and then spending time with Fox when we’re not working.”

There was a soft laugh at the request. “Done deal. How are Vixy and mini-James?"

“Fantastic and trouble, equally applied to both.” A roguish grin spread across the vulpine’s face anytime the subject of his wife came up, and today was far from an exception. “You ever plan on settling down?”

“As if retiring from piloting and taking a desk job wasn’t settling down enough?” The smile faded on Dani’s face despite her jovial tone. “Truthfully, I don’t know James. It’s been..I went on a few dates….just.” The wolfess fell silent and looked away, her eyes roaming the horizon in the distance before returning her gaze to the vulpine the smile back in place on her face. “Hasn’t panned out yet.”

The vulpine picked up the hint to move along from the topic, chatting with her a little while longer before parting ways. “Dani, do be careful, if you’re digging into the CASD other ways. I know you know that but”

“I know. You too."


End file.
